Gunmen attack state TV station in Afghanistan

Gunmen stormed the national television station in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city on Wednesday, killing six people as gunfights and explosions rocked the building with journalists trapped inside, officials and eyewitnesses said.

At least 17 others were left wounded in the four-hour assault on Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), which marks the latest in a string of attacks on media workers in the country.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the raid in eastern Nangarhar province, where the US military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb last month in an unprecedented strike.

"There were four attackers – one blew himself up at the gate, killing the guard. Three others entered the building but were killed after our security forces fought them for four hours," Nangarhar Governor Gulab Mangal told reporters.

"Six people, including four civilians and two policemen, were killed and 17 others wounded," he added. A health worker said that many of those brought to hospital suffered gunshot wounds.

An RTA photographer said he fled the building as soon as the gunfight erupted, but many of his colleagues were stuck inside until the assailants were killed.

​The US military last month dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, dubbed the "Mother Of All Bombs", on Daesh positions in Nangarhar, killing dozens of militants.

The bombing triggered global shock waves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the resurgent Taliban.

According to the US Forces-Afghanistan, defections and recent battlefield losses have reduced the local Daesh presence from a peak of as many as 3,000 fighters to a maximum of 800.

TRT World spoke with Kabul-based journalist Bilal Sarwary for the latest.