Kabul hospital guard opens fire, kills foreign doctor

Kabul hospital guard opens fire, kills foreign doctor
AFP
KABUL: A guard at a Kabul hospital run by a US charity opened fire on staff Thursday, killing at least one foreign doctor and wounding several other people, medics told AFP.

“He was a guard, he has shot doctors here. One foreign doctor is dead,” said a doctor who was treating the wounded at the Cure International hospital in the Afghan capital.

Cure International is a non-profit organisation based in Pennsylvania, operating hospitals in 29 countries.

“There has been a shooting at the hospital. Initial reports say a hospital guard has opened fire on some doctors including foreigners,” Najib Danish, deputy spokesman at the interior ministry, told AFP. “There have been some casualties.”

Last month Taliban militants attacked a Kabul guesthouse used by Roots of Peace, a US anti-landmine charity, killing two people including a girl.

Kabul has been hit by a spate of attacks targeting foreign civilians this year, including a Lebanese restaurant where 21 people died, an attack on a luxury hotel and the daylight shooting of a Swedish radio journalist.

Three Americans killed in Kabul hospital attack

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary said the attack was a "blow to the confidence of foreign aid workers"

Three Americans have been shot dead by a policeman at a hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul, US officials say.

A spokesman for Afghanistan's interior ministry described those killed as "medical staff".

The hospital, which specialises in children's and maternal health, is run by Cure, a small US Christian charity. Two others were reported wounded.

The attacker, who reportedly shot himself, is in police custody. His motive remains unclear, officials say.

Afghanistan suffered a spate of deadly attacks in the run-up to presidential elections on 5 April.

The US embassy in Kabul tweeted that it was "with great sadness we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack on Cure Hospital". No other information would be released for the moment, it added.


Security forces personnel arrived at the scene of the attack

The hospital employs a number of foreign nationals

According to Kabul police, a group of five or six foreigners were entering the hospital in western Kabul early on Thursday when a policemen at a nearby checkpoint opened fire before turning his weapon on himself.

The policeman was named as Ayunullah.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says he worked for the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF), which is assigned to guard the hospital.

The BBC understands Mr Ayunullah's family members are being questioned in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Cure took over the 100-bed hospital seven years ago and restored it to specialise in providing healthcare for women and children. The hospital employs 27 doctors and 64 nurses, the charity says.


The hospital, run by Christian charity Cure, focuses on healthcare for women and children

Thursday's is the latest high-profile attack in the Afghan capital in recent months.........