KABUL (Reuters) - Suspected militants stormed the Kabul campus of the American University of Afghanistan on Wednesday with some students jumping from second floor windows to escape the gunfire and explosions, witnesses and officials said. 
 
 Foreign staff and dozens of pupils were trapped in the compound hours after the attack began at about 6:30 p.m. (10 a.m. ET). 
 
 News of casualties was sketchy, but the head of hospitals in the Afghan capital said at least one person had been killed and 14 students wounded in the assault. 
 
 “Many students jumped from the second floor, some broke their legs and some hurt their head trying to escape,” Abdullah Fahimi, a student who escaped, told Reuters. He injured his ankle making the leap. 
 
 “We were in the class when we heard a loud explosion followed by gunfire. It was very close. Some students were crying, others were screaming.” 
 
 A senior interior ministry official said that elite Afghan forces had surrounded the university and witnesses at the scene said special forces had entered the walled compound where gunfire that had lasted for more than an hour had since stopped. 
 
 “There are two gunmen hiding inside the building and a clearing operation is ongoing to eliminate them,” interior ministry spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, said. 
 
 Afghan policemen stand guard at the site of an attack at American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghanistan August 24, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani 
 
 CAR BOMB 
 
 Ahmad Mukhtar, another student who fled the scene, said the gunmen had got into the university buildings despite security measures including three or four armed guards and watchtowers. 
 
 He added that he believed the attack had started at the main gate into the compound. 
 
 “I finished my class and was about to leave when I heard a few gunshots and a huge explosion, followed by more gunfire,” he said. “I ran toward the emergency exit with other students, climbed the wall and jumped outside.” 
 
 Kabul police chief, Abdul Rahman Rahimi, told Reuters that the attack began with a car bomb and several attackers had entered the campus. 
 
 Islamist militant groups, mainly the Afghan Taliban and a local offshoot of Islamic State, have claimed a string of recent atrocities aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani. 
 
 No one has claimed the university attack. 
 
 It is the second time this month that the university or its staff have been targeted. 
 
 Two teachers, an American and an Australian, remain missing after being abducted at gunpoint from a road nearby on Aug. 7. 
 
 Slideshow (6 Images) 
 
 Taliban insurgents control large swathes of Afghanistan, and local armed forces are struggling to contain them, especially in the provinces of Helmand to the south and Kunduz to the north. 
 
 NATO ended its combat mission in December 2014, but thousands of troops remain to train and assist Afghan forces, while several thousand more U.S. soldiers are engaged in a separate mission focusing on al Qaeda and Islamic State. ||||| Afghan policemen wounded in a complex Taliban attack on the campus of the American University in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. University President Mark English told The Associated... (Associated Press) 
 
 Afghan policemen wounded in a complex Taliban attack on the campus of the American University in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. University President Mark English told The Associated Press that security forces had arrived on the scene soon after the attack began around 7 p.m. (1430... (Associated Press) 
 
 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Militants attacked the American University of Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to an Associated Press photographer who was in class at the time. 
 
 Massoud Hossaini said he was in a classroom with 15 students when he heard an explosion on the southern flank of the campus. 
 
 "I went to the window to see what was going on, and I saw a person in normal clothes outside. He shot at me and shattered the glass," Hossaini said, adding that he fell on the glass and cut his hands. 
 
 The students then barricaded themselves into the classroom, pushing chairs and desks against the door, and staying on the floor. 
 
 Hossaini and about nine students later managed to escape from the campus through a northern emergency gate. 
 
 "As we were running I saw someone lying on the ground face down, they looked like they had been shot in the back," he said. 
 
 Hossaini and the nine students took refuge in a residential house near the campus, and were later safely evacuated by Afghan security forces. 
 
 University President Mark English told The Associated Press that security forces had arrived on the scene soon after the attack began around 7 p.m. (1430 GMT) and that "we are trying to assess the situation." 
 
 Other witnesses say they heard explosions and automatic gunfire. Ambulances arrived at the campus in western Kabul, but it was not immediately clear how many people had been wounded. 
 
 Dejan Panic, the program director at Kabul's Emergency Hospital, said 11 patients had so far been admitted, 10 men and one woman. He said three were "seriously" wounded, probably from automatic gunfire. 
 
 Police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said security forces were conducting a clearing operation to track down the "terrorists." He said it was still not clear if there were one or two attackers. 
 
 All other personnel on the campus were being evacuated, he said. He had no further details on the nature of the attack. 
 
 The Pentagon said U.S. military advisers were on the ground with Afghan security forces at the university. Spokesman Adam Stump said the forces had been embedded with the Afghan units. 
 
 The attack on AUAF comes two weeks after two university staff, an American and an Australian, were kidnapped from their car by unknown gunmen. Their whereabouts are still unknown. 
 
 The university was established in 2006 to offer liberal arts courses modeled on the U.S. system. More than 1,000 students are currently enrolled in degree courses. 
 
 The Taliban have been fighting to overthrow the Kabul government for 15 years, and regard foreign civilians as legitimate targets. 
 
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 Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| (CNN) Twelve people were killed in an attack on a university in Kabul, the Afghan capital, a spokesman for the Chief of Kabul Police tells CNN. 
 
 Seven students, three policemen and two security guards were killed in the attack on the American University campus, Basir Mujahid, the spokesman said. 
 
 Around 750 students were on campus at the time, he added. 
 
 Police searched the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul early Thursday and killed two attackers who stormed the campus with guns and explosives, Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of Kabul police's criminal investigation department, told AFP early Thursday. 
 
 "We have ended our clean-up operation. Two attackers were gunned down," Obaidi said about 10 hours after the assault began. 
 
 The gunmen detonated explosives and fired guns, witnesses said, causing some students and faculty to flee. Others hid inside buildings, a senior State Department official told CNN. 
 
 No group immediately claimed responsibility. The Afghan government and supporting US officials have battled the Taliban for years. Two professors were abducted recently. 
 
 Despite its name, few Americans study at the school, a senior US State Department official told CNN. But a number of Americans serve on the faculty and may have been trapped inside buildings. The school is regarded as a symbol of cooperation between Afghanistan and the United States. 
 
 Ahmad Samin said he was teaching a chemistry class Wednesday evening when the assailants struck. 
 
 The attackers opened fire and detonated explosives on the campus. Quickly, the lights went out in Samin's classroom. 
 
 "It was very dark, (and) everyone was running. Everyone started screaming," said Samin, who is a US citizen. "(It) was the scariest moment in my life. I was just thinking about my son and daughter who are in (the United States)." 
 
 Amid black smoke, he took off running with the students and other faculty, and "the smoke entered my mouth" as he fled, he said. 
 
 'Enormous and harsh sound' 
 
 Witnesses described a chaotic scene. 
 
 A student, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety, told CNN he was attending a lecture class when he heard a "very enormous and harsh sound" -- an explosion roughly 50 meters from his classroom. 
 
 "Everyone looked around the room looking for an escape," he said. "We have an emergency exit area in the corner of the campus. It's like a gate that opens when people need to get out of campus. Everyone was running out of there." 
 
 He heard gunfire as they ran, then a second explosion. Both explosions came from the school's entrance, he said. 
 
 #AUAF - Gunfire still being heard as CRU slowly carry out clearance operation in order to avoid civilian casualties #Kabul — TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 24, 2016 
 
 "People were screaming for help. Everyone was screaming," he said. 
 
 He saw several people injured -- some from glass, others by bullets. A guard had injuries that appeared to be a result of one of the explosions, he said. 
 
 The student said he had heard from friends trapped in three buildings. 
 
 Bilal Sawary, a journalist in Kabul, said he'd heard from several people on campus. 
 
 "One of my family members who was there told me the attackers had maps, they were drinking Red Bulls, clearly aiming to stay as long as they could and some of them were tossing hand grenades," he said. 
 
 Security fears in Kabul 
 
 The school opened in 2006. It's the only private, nonprofit coed university in the country and has about 1,700 full- and part-time students. 
 
 The university is a very close partnership between the United States and Afghanistan and is an important symbol of the partnership between the two countries, the State Department official said. 
 
 It is considered an elite school that represents the modern and moderate Afghanistan, where many afghan government and nongovernment organization officials have studied. The United States funds a lot scholarships for Afghans to study, including many for women. 
 
 The blast occurred at 7:50 p.m., when students were gathering and eating together. 
 
 It comes less than three weeks after the school was forced to suspend campus operations after two teachers -- an American and Australian -- were kidnapped at gunpoint. Their whereabouts remain unknown. 
 
 Security fears 
 
 A rash of kidnappings and Taliban bombings have heightened security fears in Kabul, the Afghan capital. American and other diplomats have been barred from traveling by road the short distance from the city's international airport to their diplomatic missions. Instead, they've been ferried by helicopter. 
 
 Many countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, have longstanding travel advisories against all but essential travel to Afghanistan because of the security situation. 
 
 "We are closely watching the situation at the American University in Kabul," a U.S. defense official told CNN. "A small number of advisers from the Resolute Support Mission is currently assisting Afghan forces as they respond. These advisers are not in a combat role; they are advising their Afghan counterparts." 
 
 The National Security Council issued this statement on Wednesday: "The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack today on the American University of Afghanistan. We salute the quick work of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces who responded to the attack and secured the university. We send our thoughts and prayers to the families and loved ones of those killed and our heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery to those wounded. We further reaffirm the support of the United States for the Afghan government and people as they continue to build a more stable, secure, and prosperous Afghanistan."
– An attack Wednesday on the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul left dozens of students and foreign staff trapped inside campus buildings, Reuters reports. The attack by suspected militants armed with guns and explosives started around 6:30pm and was followed by more than an hour of shooting when Afghan forces arrived. According to the AP, one of its photographers, Massoud Hossaini, was in class at the university when the attack started. Hossaini says he was shot at when he looked out a window after hearing an explosion and at least two grenades were thrown into his classroom. Students proceeded to barricade themselves in classrooms. A witness told CNN fires were burning on the campus. Eighteen people were reported injured in the attack, and authorities say a university guard was killed. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though the Taliban seems like a likely culprit. More than 1,000 students are enrolled in the American University of Afghanistan. The US-style liberal arts school shut down for a time after two teachers, one American and one Australian, were abducted Aug. 7. They haven't been seen since.