The Afghan government said it disagrees with the U.S. assessment that Islamic State militants were behind an attack on a maternity ward that killed two dozen, including babies.
The disagreement comes as Afghan security forces launch a new offensive against the Taliban, which it claims was behind the Tuesday attack on the Kabul maternity ward. Three gunmen disguised as police officers stormed the maternity ward, which was run by Doctors Without Borders, and were killed after a lengthy gun battle with Afghan forces.
Peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said Thursday evening on Twitter that the U.S. government has determined that the hospital had been targeted by ISIS through its Khorasan Province branch, which first began to establish operations in the region more than five years ago.
“The USG has assessed ISIS-K conducted the horrific attacks on a maternity ward and a funeral earlier this week in Afghanistan. ISIS has demonstrated a pattern for favoring these types of heinous attacks against civilians and is a threat to the Afghan people and to the world,” Khalilzad said.
The USG has assessed ISIS-K conducted the horrific attacks on a maternity ward and a funeral earlier this week in Afghanistan. ISIS has demonstrated a pattern for favoring these types of heinous attacks against civilians and is a threat to the Afghan people and to the world.
— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) May 14, 2020
Khalilzad again emphasized that the United States believes ISIS was behind the attack during an on-the-record call with reporters on Friday.
“Based on the information we have and based on the pattern of ISIS attacks in the past, we believe, this is our assessment, that ISIS is responsible for the attack on the hospital,” Khalilzad said. “We look forward to receiving — if the government has information to the contrary in terms of the attack — to receiving that. We, as I said before, understand the strong feeling among the Afghan people about this dastardly attack, but our assessment is that it was ISIS that did it.”
Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh pushed back after the remarks over Twitter saying, “Neither the Taliban hands nor their stained consciousness can be washed of the blood of women, babies & other innocent in the latest senseless carnage.”
A senior Afghan official told Reuters that Khalilzad’s assessment was “premature” and claimed that evidence pointed to Taliban and Haqqani Network involvement. The Haqqani Network is a terrorist group that operates in Afghanistan and along the border of Pakistan. The group is closely intermeshed with the Taliban and its leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was appointed as a deputy in the Taliban back in 2015.
Neither the Taliban nor IS-KP has claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, and the Taliban has denied it was responsible for the carnage. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said in two tweets that his group did not attack the maternity ward. The Taliban has also blamed IS-KP, which is reviled by both the Taliban and the Afghan government, for the violence.
“Attack in Dashti Barchi area of Kabul city has nothing to do with the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate,” Shaheen said. “Blast at a funeral in Khewa district #Nangarhar is not the work of the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate. The Islamic Emirate condemns such actions,”
The maternity ward attack took place in the Dashti Barchi part of Kabul, home to many in the Hazara ethnic group, who are largely Shiite Muslims. Hazara neighborhoods have been targeted by IS-KP in the past.
IS-KP did claim responsibility for another attack in Afghanistan that same day. A militant with the group detonated a suicide vest during a crowded funeral in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province. The funeral was for the commander of the Kuz Kunar district’s police force, who died on Monday. At least 32 people were killed in the attack and dozens more injured.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday called for security forces to go on the “offensive” against the Taliban and other groups after the deadly attacks. Afghan forces have been in the crosshairs of the Taliban despite the peace accord that the U.S. signed with the group. Ghani’s declaration represents another escalation in the country that has long been fraught by war.
“In order to provide security for public places and to thwart attacks and threats from the Taliban and other terrorist groups, I am ordering Afghan security forces to switch from an active defense mode to an offensive one and to start their operations against the enemies,” Ghani said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the State Department for comment.
