Afghans mourn those killed in horrific IS university attack

Afghanistan declared a national day of mourning Tuesday to honor the 22 mostly students killed in a horrific attack a day earlier on Kabul University, claimed by the Islamic State group. Another 22 people were injured, some of them critically.

Monday's brutal, hours-long assault was the second attack on an educational institution in the Afghan capital in as many weeks amid a soaring rise in violence and chaos across Afghanistan, even as Taliban insurgents and government negotiators hold peace talks in the Gulf state of Qatar.

The Islamic State affiliate also claimed the earlier attack on Oct. 24 that killed 24 young students. The attack occurred in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi.

A man stands inside a damaged room at the Kabul University following a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

The IS affiliate has declared war on the country's minority Shiites and has claimed a number of vicious attacks since emerging in eastern Afghanistan in 2014.

Outside Kabul University Tuesday a small group of demonstrators gathered demanding a cease-fire and urging the government to withdraw from the peace talks until a permanent end to hostilities is declared. Some held signs reading “why are you killing us?”

The Islamic State is not part of peace talks and despite their claims of responsibility, the government has blamed Taliban for the attacks. Taliban, like the Afghan security forces, are fighting the Islamic State and under an agreement signed with the U.S., the Taliban have committed to fighting terrorism, specifically the Islamic State.

A blood-stained Taliban flag is seen on the window inside the Kabul University after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

The Taliban, which condemned the attack on the university and denied involvement within hours of its start, have refused to declare a cease-fire saying it would be part of the negotiations.

But if not a cease-fire, then a significant reduction in violence has taken on increasing importance as Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad on Monday made a surprise visit to Pakistan urging Islamabad to urge the insurgent movement to reduce violence.

Pakistan has been critical in pushing Taliban into talks. Even as the Islamic insurgent group ousted by the U.S.-led coalition in 2001 maintains its political office in Doha, where talks are being held, its leadership councils are located in Pakistan.

A blood-stained book is seen on the ground inside the Kabul University after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

Khalilzad brokered a peace pact with the Taliban that was signed in February and seen at the time as the country's best chance at peace in more than 40 years of war. The peace agreement which is to allow U.S. and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan after 19 years, it also paved the way for the peace talks currently underway.

In a series of tweets Tuesday Khalilzad condemned the attack but also warned “this barbaric attack is NOT an opportunity for the government and the Taliban to score points against each other. There is a common enemy here.”

Family members of the victims mourned their loved ones on local TV and called for the government to investigate security lapses.

Journalists photograph inside Kabul University after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

Burned books are seen inside the Kabul University after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

A man talks on his phone inside a damaged room at the Kabul University following a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

A damaged room at the Kabul University is seen after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

Afghan security police stand guard at the entrance gate of Kabul University after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

A burned library at the Kabul University is seen after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

Bullet-shells are seen in a room at the Kabul University after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

A burned office at the Kabul University is seen after a deadly attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. The brazen attack by gunmen who stormed the university has left many dead and wounded in the Afghan capital. The assault sparked an hours-long gun battle. (AP PhotoRahmat Gul)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for an American believed to be held by the Taliban for nearly two years are asking a United Nations human rights investigator to intervene, citing what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment.

Ryan Corbett was abducted Aug. 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living at the time of the collapse of the U.S.-based government there a year earlier. He arrived on a valid 12-month visa to pay and train staff as part of a business venture he led aimed at promoting Afghanistan's private sector through consulting services and lending.

Corbett has since been shuttled between multiple prisons, though his lawyers say he has not been seen since last December by anyone other than the people with whom he was detained.

In a petition sent Thursday, lawyers for Corbett say that he's been threatened with physical violence and torture and has been malnourished and deprived of medical care. He's been held in solitary confinement, including in a basement cell with almost no sunlight and exercise, and his physical and mental health have significantly deteriorated, the lawyers say.

Corbett has been able to speak with his family by phone five times since his arrest, including last month. His family has not been able to see him — his only visits have been two check-ins from a third-party government — and their characterizations of his mistreatment are based on accounts from recently released prisoners who were with him and his openly dispirited tone in conversations.

“During Mr. Corbett’s most recent call with his wife and children, Mr. Corbett indicated that the mental torture and anguish have caused him to lose all hope,” said the petition, signed by the Corbett family attorneys, Ryan Fayhee and Kate Gibson.

The petition is addressed to Alice Edwards, an independent human rights investigator and the special rapporteur for torture in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the U.N. It asks Edwards, who was appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, to “urgently reach out to the Taliban to secure Mr. Corbett’s immediate release and freedom from torture, as guaranteed by international law.”

"This situation is just dragging on, and I’m increasingly concerned and taking steps that I hope will make a difference and help the situation — just increasingly concerned and panicking about Ryan’s deteriorating health and physical and mental health," Corbett's wife, Anna, said in an interview. “And that was leading me to take this next step.”

The U.S. government is separately working to get Corbett home and has designated him as wrongfully detained. A State Department spokesman told reporters last month that officials had continually pressed for Corbett's release and were “using every lever we can to try to bring Ryan and these other wrongfully detained Americans home from Afghanistan."

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry in Afghanistan said this week that it had no knowledge of Corbett's case.

Corbett, of Dansville, New York, first visited Afghanistan in 2006 and relocated there with his family in 2010, supervising several non-governmental organizations.

The family was forced to leave Afghanistan in August 2021 when the Taliban captured Kabul, but he returned the following January so that he could renew his business visa. Given the instability on the ground, the family discussed the trip and “we were all pretty nervous,” Corbett's wife said.

But after that first uneventful trip, he returned to the country in August 2022 to train and pay his staff and resume a business venture that involved consulting services, microfinance lending and evaluating international development projects.

While on a trip to the northern Jawzjan province, Corbett and a Western colleague were confronted by armed members of the Taliban and were taken first to a police station and later to an underground prison.

Anna Corbett said that when she learned her husband had been taken to a police station, she got “really scared” but that he was optimistic the situation would be quickly resolved.

That, however, did not happen, and Anna Corbett, who has three teenage children and makes regular trips to Washington, said she's trying to advocate as forcefully as she can while not letting “anxiety take over.”

“I feel like it’s the uncertainty of all of it that just is so difficult because you just don’t know what’s going to come at you — what call, what news," she said. "And I’m worried about Ryan and the effect of the trauma on him and then also on my kids, just what they’re experiencing. I've tried to protect them the best I could, but this is so difficult.”

Associated Press writer Riazat Butt in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

This family photo shows Ryan Corbett holding rabbits with his daughter Miriam and son Caleb in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2020. Lawyers for Corbett, believed held by the Taliban for nearly two years, are asking a United Nations human rights investigator to intervene, citing what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment. Corbett was abducted on August 10, 2022 after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living at the time of the collapse of the U.S.-based government there one year earlier, on a valid 12-month business visa to pay and train staff. (AP Photo/Anna Corbett)