Gunmen dressed as medics fought security forces for hours in assault on military hospital in Afghan capital 
 
 Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Kabul military hospital by gunmen disguised as doctors who entered the facility and battled security forces for hours. 
 
 At least 38 people died and dozens more were injured, the hospital said. 
 
 The attack began with a suicide bombing at the rear of the hospital complex in the Afghan capital. Officials said at least three gunmen dressed as medical staff then entered the 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan facility and took up positions on the upper floors. 
 
 A second explosion was heard as Afghan special forces engaged the gunmen and “heavy fighting” ensued, a defence ministry spokesman said. An earlier death toll of three was revised upwards after security forces carried out checks in the aftermath of the fighting. 
 
 Isis’s Afghan wing has claimed responsibility, according to a report by the Isis-affiliated Amaq news agency. A November suicide attack on a crowded mosque, claimed by the same group, killed more than 30 people and wounded dozens. 
 
 Isis was also accused by local officials of killing six Red Cross employees in an ambush on a convoy in northern Afghanistan last month. It has claimed at least two other attacks on minority Shias in Kabul since last July. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest An unverified photo released by Isis purporting to show one of the Kabul hospital attackers. Photograph: Amaq 
 
 Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, said the latest attack “trampled on all human values”. “In all religions, a hospital is regarded as an immune site and attacking it is attacking the whole of Afghanistan,” he said, during an address in Kabul for International Women’s Day. 
 
 Abdul Qadir, a hospital employee, told Reuters he saw a gunman dressed in a white doctor’s coat take out an AK-47 assault rifle and open fire, killing at least one patient and a hospital worker. 
 
 
 
 Reuters reported that patients could be seen climbing out of the building and sheltering on window ledges outside the hospital, across the road from the heavily fortified US embassy. 
 
 Isis has been active in Afghanistan since 2014 but maintains a far smaller presence – and poses far less of an existential threat to the Afghan state – than the Taliban, who continue to be responsible for the majority of violence in the country. 
 
 Hundreds of US airstrikes in the past year have helped to limit the group’s influence to a handful of districts in and around the eastern Nangarhar province, though Wednesday’s attack showed it continues to have the ability to strike outside those areas. 
 
 Gen John Nicholson, the most senior US commander in Afghanistan, has claimed American efforts have killed about one-third of Isis’s fighters and shrunk its territory by two-thirds. 
 
 The Afghan affiliate’s leader, Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed in a US drone strike in August. 
 
 The group’s support among local people has also been limited by its trademark brutality and imposition of a blinkered vision of Islam – including bans on smoking and poppy cultivation and the annulment of government-officiated weddings – in spite of local customs. 
 
 Analysts have put the number of Isis fighters in Afghanistan at up to 2,000, though a close assessment is difficult to establish because of the uncertain toll of casualties and success of recruitment drives. 
 
 The Taliban claimed an attack last week on a police station and intelligence service office in the capital that killed and wounded dozens. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Special forces begin an operation against IS attackers 
 
 More than 30 people have been killed after attackers dressed as doctors stormed the largest military hospital in Kabul, Afghan officials say. 
 
 Militants armed with guns and grenades gained entry after one detonated explosives at a hospital gate and then opened fire on staff and patients. 
 
 Commandos who landed on the Sardar Daud hospital roof killed all four attackers after several hours of fighting. 
 
 The so-called Islamic State (IS) group has claimed the attack. 
 
 The Taliban has denied any involvement. 
 
 More than 50 people were also wounded, the defence ministry said. 
 
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 President Ashraf Ghani said the attack at the 400-bed hospital "trampled all human values". 
 
 "In all religions, a hospital is regarded as an immune site and attacking it is attacking the whole of Afghanistan," he said. 
 
 The attack began at 09:00 local time (04:30 GMT). One hospital staff member who was able to get out saw an attacker "wearing a white coat holding a Kalashnikov and opening fire on everyone, including the guards, patients and doctors". 
 
 One employee wrote on Facebook: "Attackers are inside the hospital. Pray for us." 
 
 Change of tactic: Analysis by Inayatulhaq Yasini, BBC Afghan 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Smoke billowed from the hospital roof during the attack 
 
 The hospital attack marks a change in approach by so-called Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan - it's the first time they have engaged directly with security forces in the capital. 
 
 Previously they have targeted civilian gatherings, mainly of Shia Muslims, as well as causing carnage at the Supreme Court last month. 
 
 But at the hospital they used an approach more commonly associated with the Taliban - blowing the gates open to allow gunmen to enter. This suggests they now have the resources and the military training to expand their attacks. 
 
 If that's the case, the security forces could face more such assaults in the coming months. 
 
 In the two years since it announced its presence in Afghanistan, IS has mainly engaged with Afghan forces - and more powerful, rival Taliban fighters - in the east, near the Pakistan border. It has failed so far to widen its base in the country - one reason, observers suggest, it may now be mounting more headline-grabbing attacks. 
 
 The government claims it has rooted out IS militants from a number of bases in the east - but has yet to dislodge them from mountainous areas they control. 
 
 TV pictures showed people hiding from the gunmen on ledges outside windows on upper floors of the building. 
 
 More than six hours after the attack began, interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi tweeted that special forces had ended their operation and all the attackers were dead. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Doctor Abdul Qadir said he was shot at in an operating theatre 
 
 The IS-affiliated Amaq news agency shared two images via the Telegram messaging app that appeared to show one of the militants taking part in the assault and a number of dead bodies. 
 
 Afghanistan's de-facto deputy leader Abdullah Abdullah also condemned the attack on Twitter and vowed to "avenge the blood of our people". 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Some patients were evacuated and transferred to other hospitals 
 
 IS announced it was moving into Afghanistan and Pakistan when it declared its so-called Khorasan Province in 2015 and has since carried out a number of attacks. 
 
 In July 2016, a suicide bomb attack on a rally in Kabul killed about 80 people. 
 
 Three months later, two similar attacks during the religious festival of Ashura claimed about 30 lives and in November 2016 an attack at a mosque in Kabul killed more than 30. 
 
 IS also claimed a suicide attack at Kabul's Supreme Court last month that killed 22 people and has stepped up activity in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. 
 
 The Taliban has also been carrying out attacks, killing 16 people in Kabul in suicide attacks a week ago, after beginning its Spring offensive early. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated / Source: Reuters 
 
 KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen dressed as doctors stormed a military hospital near the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan's capital on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 50. 
 
 The attack set off clashes with security forces that continued for hours, with some patients climbing out of the building and sheltering on window ledges. 
 
 Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told NBC News that the militants killed 30 people — including soldiers, doctors and civilians. 
 
 He added that all four of the gunmen who entered the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital had been killed. 
 
 The 400-bed military hospital is located in the Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul's heavily-guarded diplomatic quarter. 
 
 Following an explosion, the gunmen holed themselves up on the upper floors of the hospital and engaged special forces sent to the scene, officials said. 
 
 Afghan National Army soldiers descend from helicopter on a roof of the military hospital in Kabul on Wednesday. Mohammad Ismail / Reuters 
 
 Abdul Qadir, a hospital worker who witnessed the attack, told The Associated Press an attacker in a white coat shot at him and his colleagues. 
 
 ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack in a tweet sent from an account they often use but offered no evidence to support their claim. ISIS has in the past claimed responsibility for attacks they weren't involved with. 
 
 Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, tweeted that the militant group was not responsible for the attack. 
 
 Authorities initially put the death toll at 3 but revised the figure after security forces carried out checks of the buildings in the hospital complex. 
 
 President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack during an address in honor of International Women's Day, calling it "an attack on all Afghan people and all Afghan women." 
 
 An Afghan man cries outside the military hospital in Kabul on Wednesday. Mohammad Ismail / Reuters 
 
 The hospital treats military casualties from around the country. It is located across the road from the heavily-fortified U.S. Embassy. 
 
 State Department acting spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. strongly condemns the attack. "Targeting a medical facility that promotes care for brave Afghans working to protect their citizens has no possible justification," Toner said during a briefing with reporters. 
 
 A State Department official told NBC News there are no reports of U.S. citizens injured or killed in the attack. 
 
 The incident underlines warnings by government officials that high-profile attacks in Kabul are likely to escalate this year. 
 
 Afghan security forces have struggled to combat both the Taliban and ISIS since the U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, switching to an advisory and counterterrorism role.
– Islamic State militants donned doctor uniforms before forcing their way into a hospital not far from the US Embassy in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 38 people and leaving more than 50 injured, report NBC News and the Guardian. The BBC reports the attack began with an explosion at a gate to the 400-bed military hospital around 9am local time. At least three militants dressed as doctors are said to have then entered the building with guns and grenades. One staff member reported seeing a gunman "wearing a white coat holding a Kalashnikov and opening fire on everyone, including the guards, patients and doctors" as people inside fled to window ledges. The attackers then gathered on the upper floors and engaged security forces in "heavy fighting," per the Guardian. Six hours after the first explosion, a rep for Afghanistan's interior ministry reported all attackers had been killed after authorities were able to land on the roof. ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the attack, the first in which militants engaged directly with Afghan forces in Kabul, which suggests they "now have the resources and the military training to expand their attacks," per the BBC. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says the attack "trampled all human values," noting attacking a hospital is like "attacking the whole of Afghanistan." (ISIS has recently shifted targets.)