A elderly Taliban service commander in Kabul, Hamdullah Mokhlis, was among the 19 dead in an attack that took place on a military sanitarium in Kabul on Tuesday, reported news agency AFP. The commander was killed after his men responded to the attack, the responsibility for which has been claimed by the Islamic State, officers further told AFP Mokhlis, a member of the strict Haqqani network and an officer in the Badri Corps special forces, is the most elderly figure to have been killed since the Taliban seized the capital Tuesday’s attack was the rearmost atrocity to rock Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in August following the collapse of Ashraf Ghani- led government.

Claiming the responsibility for the attack, Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) in a statement on its Telegram channels said that”five Islamic State group fighters carried out contemporaneous coordinated attacks”on the sprawling point, reported AFP Meanwhile, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid claimed that the Taliban forces repulsed the attack within 15 twinkles.”The IS mutineers wanted to target civilians, croakers and cases in the sanitarium,”he added As part of the response, he said, Taliban” special forces”were dropped onto the roof of the sanitarium from one of the copters that the group seized from Afghanistan’s former US- backed government.

The attack took place when a self-murder bomber exploded his snares near the sanitarium’s entrance. Following which, the markswomen broke into the sanitarium grounds, firing their munitions.”Nineteen dead bodies and about 50 wounded people have been taken to hospitals in Kabul,”a health ministry functionary who asked not to be named told AFP.