The armed battle near the Indian consulate in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, ended on Monday night after 25 hours of fierce fighting, Agence France-Presse reported. At least one police officer died and 11 people were injured, in addition to the three attackers who were killed. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which began when assailants targeted the embassy’s secure compound from a building nearby. Commandos landed on the building's roof by helicopter and ended the operation, the report added.
Government spokesperson Shir Jan Durrani said, “The clearance operation is over and all three armed assailants have been killed. We are still doing room-to-room searches. The area is absolutely under government control.”
Elsewhere in the country, a Taliban bomb struck a compound that houses foreigners near Kabul airport on Monday, leaving dozens of people injured, while a suicide bomber blew himself up near the same area later in the day.
According to experts, these attacks could be an attempt to derail peace talks and any progress in bilateral relations between India and Pakistan by using Afghanistan as a proxy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited both Kabul and Lahore at the end of December. He had inaugurated the new $90-million Afghan Parliament building during his trip to Kabul, which was built by India.
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