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KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — More than 30 people were killed and more than 50 injured Wednesday when attackers dressed in medical uniforms stormed a military hospital in the Afghan capital of Kabul, said Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense.
The six-hour siege ended with four attackers dead at the Sardar Mohammed Daud Khan hospital, the biggest and best-equipped facility in the country. One suicide bomber died at the hospital's south gate, and three armed assailants were killed inside the hospital, said Sediq Sediqqi, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman, said.
The facility, known locally as the "400 bed" hospital, is only a few hundred meters from the US embassy and the diplomatic quarter of Kabul.
The injured were taken to the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, Smael Kawosi, media relation officer for the Ministry of Health, said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mojahid, denied responsibility for the attack in a tweet, saying: "Today's attack on hospital in Kabul has nothing to do with the Mujahidin of Islamic Emirate," using the group's formal name.
In the vacuum of a Taliban claim, the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq said ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. Although the group usually attacks sectarian targets, it is credible that it planned and carried out the attack. CNN has not independently verified the claim.
Initial reports indicated the attackers detonated an explosive before entering the hospital compound. Witnesses told CNN an explosion was first heard around at 9 a.m. local time (11.30 p.m. Tuesday ET). Afghan National Police special forces rushed in to counter the attack.
"At first there was firing followed by a huge blast," an employee at a nearby hospital said.
An employee at an Italian restaurant nearby said she heard one explosion around 9 a.m., then heard gunfire about 25 minutes later.
A suicide bomber detonated the explosive, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Three other assailants wearing medical personnel uniforms entered the hospital and made their way to the second and third floors of the building, the statement said.
The attackers were not immediately killed because security forces were busy evacuating patients, the statement said.
Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah condemned the attack.
"I condemn the terrorist attacked on hospital in Kabul," he tweeted. "While we work for peace, we'll avenge the blood of our people."
The US Embassy in Kabul said, "Targeting a medical facility providing care for the brave Afghans working to protect their fellow citizens has no possible justification in any religion or creed."
NATO forces in Afghanistan indicated that the organization was standing by to assist Afghan security forces, according to tweets from Operation Resolute Support.
"Once again insurgents show complete disrespect for humanity by attacking a hospital. We stand with Afghan people against terrorism."
The NATO tweets condemned the attack, using an older name for the hospital.
Militants have long targeted loosely guarded targets in Kabul and across Afghanistan. Last month, at least 20 people died after a suicide blast outside Afghanistan's Supreme Court in Kabul, police and other officials told CNN.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a parking lot near the court in the Afghan capital, according to Basir Mojahid, spokesman for Kabul's chief of police.
Earlier in the year, a spate of attacks — two suicide bombings near the Afghan Parliament in Kabul, an explosion at a Kandahar province government compound and a suicide bombing in Helmand province — left dozens of people dead and wounded.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Kabul attacks, which killed at least 36 people and injured 76 others in the capital.
Last summer, seven students, three police officers and two security guards were killed in the attack on the American University of Afghanistan campus in the capital.
Police searched the university's grounds and killed two attackers who stormed the campus with guns and explosives, Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of Kabul police's criminal investigation department, said. The gunmen detonated explosives and fired guns, witnesses said, causing some students and faculty to flee.
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