ISIS claimed a pre-dawn attack on a military compound in Kabul on Monday that officials said has killed at least five soldiers and wounded 10 others.
"ISIS fighters targeted the military academy in the city of Kabul in a suicide attack," the terrorist group said via its propaganda arm Amaq although an Afghan official stressed that the assault was on a unit providing security for the facility and not the academy itself.
Monday's attack started around 4 a.m., witnesses said, and fighting continued long after daybreak.
A suicide bomber first struck the military unit responsible for providing security for the Marshal Fahim academy, followed by a gunbattle with the troops, said Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghan defense ministry.
At least five insurgents were involved in the morning assault, according to Waziri. Two of the attackers were killed in the gunbattle, two detonated their suicide vests and one was arrested by the troops, he said.
All roads leading to the military academy were blocked by police, which only allowed ambulances access to the site to transfer the wounded to hospitals.
After the gunbattle ended, the security forces resumed control of the area. They also confiscated one suicide vest, an AK-47 and some ammunition, Waziri said.
"The attack was against an army unit providing security for the academy and not the academy itself," he insisted.
