At least two people were killed when ISIL launched an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the gates followed by three gunmen storming the building.
The assault set off a four-hour firefight that ended only after Afghan security forces said they had killed all of the attackers.
Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said two Afghan employees of the embassy had died in the attack. Three police were injured, he said.
As the attack unfolded there were conflicting reports of casualties, with a witness saying he saw the bodies of at least two policemen lying on the road outside the embassy soon after the attack began.
In its claim of responsibility, ISIL said its fighters had killed seven guards but the militant group often exaggerates its claims on the number of casualties inflicted. The attack likely meant to distract attention from the militants' massive losses in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks.
ISIL also claimed only two of its followers were involved in the attack, not four as Kabul officials said, adding to the conflicting reports.
Earlier, Mr Danish said only one policeman was wounded and that there were no fatalities among the security forces or civilians. He said all embassy staffers were safe but that the building had suffered extensive damage with windows broken and several rooms badly burnt.
It was not until the attack ended that both the embassy and the interior ministry realised that two of their Afghan staff had died in the assault.
Afghan president Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said it was the government's responsibility to provide protection to international missions.
In Baghdad, Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal condemned the assault as a "terrorist attack".
The attack began with a big explosion that rocked central Kabul shortly before noon, followed by gunfire that lasted for several hours, and two or three more subsequent large explosions.
Police quickly cordoned off the area, barring reporters from coming too close to the scene.
The Afghan interior ministry said a suicide bomber began the attack, blowing himself up at the embassy gate before three attackers stormed inside.
Earlier, Afghan officials had said a car bomb started the assault. Later on, however, it became clear the suicide bomber was on foot and not driving a car.
The ministry said Afghan security forces quickly deployed to the scene, rescuing all the embassy diplomats and employees and taking them to safety.
While the attack was still underway, ISIL's affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility in a statement carried by the extremist group's Amaq news agency.
A police officer in the area, who identified himself only as Abdullah, said the gunfire was initially intense but later became more sporadic. The area was surrounded by armoured vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.
At least one eyewitness, a store owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah said he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armoured personnel carriers and police arrived to cordon off the area.
More than an hour into the attack, witnesses reported hearing another powerful explosion and said they saw black smoke billowing skyward. It wasn't immediately clear what had caused the later explosion.
"The explosion was so strong. I was so afraid," said Maryam, a woman crying near the site of the attack said. She said she works at the nearby office of Afghanistan's national airline Ariana.
Iraq's embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called "green zone" where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.
By comparison, the Iraqi embassy is located on a small street in a neighbourhood dominated by markets and businesses.
After Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, recaptured the city of Mosul from ISIL last month, the Iraqi embassy had called reporters to its offices in Kabul to express concerns that the extremist group's local affiliate might stage large-scale attacks elsewhere to draw away attention from the militant group's losses in Iraq.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
MATCH INFO
Liverpool v Manchester City, Sunday, 8.30pm UAE
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Uefa Champions League last 16 draw
Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur
Basel v Manchester City
Sevilla v Manchester United
Porto v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Paris Saint-Germain
Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Besiktas
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Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
ENGLAND SQUAD
Team: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Ben Te'o, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Dylan Hartley, 3 Dan Cole, 4 Joe Launchbury, 5 Maro Itoje, 6 Courtney Lawes, 7 Chris Robshaw, 8 Sam Simmonds
Replacements 16 Jamie George, 17 Alec Hepburn, 18 Harry Williams, 19 George Kruis, 20 Sam Underhill, 21 Danny Care, 22 Jonathan Joseph, 23 Jack Nowell
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hoopla%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EDate%20started%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMarch%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Jacqueline%20Perrottet%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2010%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPre-seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20required%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24500%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
ENGLAND%20SQUAD
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Tree of Hell
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Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
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Director: M Night Shyamalan
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'Gold'
Director:Anthony Hayes
Stars:Zaf Efron, Anthony Hayes
Rating:3/5
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THE BIO
Family: I have three siblings, one older brother (age 25) and two younger sisters, 20 and 13
Favourite book: Asking for my favourite book has to be one of the hardest questions. However a current favourite would be Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier
Favourite place to travel to: Any walkable city. I also love nature and wildlife
What do you love eating or cooking: I’m constantly in the kitchen. Ever since I changed the way I eat I enjoy choosing and creating what goes into my body. However, nothing can top home cooked food from my parents.
Favorite place to go in the UAE: A quiet beach.
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
THURSDAY FIXTURES
4.15pm: Italy v Spain (Group A)
5.30pm: Egypt v Mexico (Group B)
6.45pm: UAE v Japan (Group A)
8pm: Iran v Russia (Group B)
