Senior Taliban Commander among Dead in Kabul Hospital Attack

A Taliban military commander was among the dead in IS attack on Afghanistan’s main military hospital, officials revealed on Wednesday.

Hamdullah Mokhlis, a member of the hardline Haqqani network and an officer in the Badri Corps special forces, is believed to be the most senior figure to have been killed since the Taliban took control over the capital.

"When he got the information that Sardar Daud Khan Hospital was under attack, Maulvi Hamdullah (Mokhlis), the commander of the Kabul corps, immediately rushed to the scene," the Taliban media official said.

"We tried to stop him but he laughed. Later we found out that he was martyred in the face-to-face fight at the hospital," the official added.

More than 20 people have been killed and at least 16 injured on Tuesday in a gun and bomb assault on a military hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul. The attack began with a suicide bomber detonating his explosives near the facility's entrance before gunmen broke into the hospital grounds.

In response, Kabul's new rulers deployed their special forces to the roof of the building in a helicopter captured from Afghanistan's former US-backed government.

Later on, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack, noting that the attack has left tens of the Taliban fighters killed.

On his part, a Taliban spokesperson Bilal Karimi pointed out that three Taliban fighters, three women, and a child were killed and five people more were wounded in the attack.

Karimi has added that the ISIS-K fighters wanted to enter the hospital and kill civilians but the fighters prevented them and killed all five assailants.