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. Seven students, three policemen and two security guards were killed in the attack on the American University campus, Basir Mujahid, the spokesman said. It is the second time this month that the university or its staff have been targeted. 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. The Taliban have been fighting to overthrow the Kabul government for 15 years, and regard foreign civilians as legitimate targets. "It was very dark, (and) everyone was running. 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. “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. 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. 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. 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. He shot at me and shattered the glass," Hossaini said, adding that he fell on the glass and cut his hands. It's the only private, nonprofit coed university in the country and has about 1,700 full- and part-time students. 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 are still unknown. "A small number of advisers from the Resolute Support Mission is currently assisting Afghan forces as they respond.
– 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.