American University of Afghanistan under attack, Americans inside

The American University of Afghanistan is under attack, according to a CBS News reporter on the ground in Afghanistan.

Ahmad Muktar reported several American professors are stuck inside the university, along with possibly hundreds of students.

“Witnesses say they heard gunshots, then a blast, and many believe it was the gate blown open, letting the attackers inside.” -CBS News

#AUAF under attack. I along with my friends escaped and several other of of my friends and professors trapped inside.

— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) August 24, 2016

The president of the American University confirmed that a militant attack is taking place on the campus located in Kabul. Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Massoud Hossaini is apparently trapped inside as well.

Help we are stuck inside AUAF and shooting flollowed by Explo this maybe my last tweets

— Massoud Hossaini (@Massoud151) August 24, 2016

Police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said police and intelligence agency personnel are at the campus, on the western outskirts of Kabul. He said police believe there is just one assailant.

A car bomb had exploded outside a school for the blind next door before at least one attacker fired at the university campus from that school building, a police officer at the scene told The New York Times.

This attack is just weeks after an American and Australian professor were were kidnapped from the university at gunpoint on August 8th.

The two professors were taken from their SUV by five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms on a main road near the American University of Afghanistan, according to Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.

According to CBS News, kidnappings are not uncommon in Afghanistan and the fear is that the hostages could be “sold up” to the Taliban, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Photo attributed to the attack on American University of Afghanistan in Kabul pic.twitter.com/EVunzOpyd3

— KAZEMI, Mustafa (@CombatJourno) August 24, 2016