Kabul
The chief military strategist for the Taliban, Qari Hamdullah Mohlis, was killed in yesterday’s attack on a Kabul military hospital carried out by the militant Islamic State.
Mohlis was also the military chief of Kabul and was previously the commander of Khost and Paktika provinces. The commander of the Badri Brigade, touted as the special forces of the Taliban, was also killed in the attack.
According to local commanders, Mohlis rushed to the site after he was informed of the attack and commanded the Taliban response to repulse the attack. He received multiple bullet injuries to his upper body which proved to be fatal.
Mohlis was also the commander who took control of the presidential palace on August 15 after Ashraf Ghani fled. Following the attack, two IS members were arrested in search operations.
After an initial investigation, the Taliban claimed the arrested militants were foreigners and spoke Arabic and English.
Witnesses on Tuesday described a scene of terror, as patients and doctors tried to lock themselves in upper-story rooms and gunfire erupted.
One woman who had been trapped in the hospital when the attack began described how she and her friend “felt we were going to die, that our lives were ending.”
“There was a blast at the door,” Rowana Dawari, a poet and lecturer, said.
“Daesh came and started firing, we were stuck. We heard firing, glass breaking. We locked ourselves in a bathroom,” she said, referring to IS by its local name.
“Later, Taliban came and we saw they were with our doctors, so we knew it was OK.”—AFP
