Former head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and vice presidential candidate Amrullah Saleh on Wednesday said that the attack on his office in Kabul was carried out by the Taliban.

Talking to TOLOnews in his first media appearance after the attack, Mr. Saleh labelled the Taliban as the enemies of the Afghan people and said the National Directorate of Security had informed him about such an attack three days before.

At least four attackers were involved in the siege which started with a car bombing at around 4:40 pm Kabul time on Sunday, July 28. It targeted the Green Trend office, a political movement run by Mr. Saleh, in Shaheed Circle in Kabul’s PD4, in an area surrounded with civilian houses, a university, and a small township.

Mr. Saleh was in his office along with almost 100 people when the attack happened. He was sharply evacuated from the area.

Photos on social media showed Mr. Saleh with a stain of blood on his right arm.

The attack ended at around 11 pm on Sunday night after all four attackers were gunned down.

The complex attack happened hours after Mr. Saleh attended the inaugural ceremony of their electoral campaigning with incumbent President Ashraf Ghani and the Second Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish.

According to Mr. Saleh, at least 30 people, 22 of them members of the Green Trend movement, lost their lives including two members of his family.

“I was not assuming that they (insurgents) use a truck full of explosives to target me. I think there are several reasons for attacking me, and one of the reasons is that they (insurgents) want to disrupt and remove the determination of those humans who want to oppose and stand against Pakistan, Daesh and Taliban, but keeping in mind that we are not against Pakistan as a state, but oppose the interreference by it,” Mr. Saleh said.

He said he resisted the attackers alongside his six colleagues for 55 minutes and then fled the scene through a way on the rooftop.

“When they (attackers) took position here, four or five minutes later, the terrorists came here and wanted to come on the top. So we clashed with them for 55 minutes and I was there. Humayoun, Alim and Amin were here and fought and they were wounded,” Mr. Saleh added.

Mr. Saleh however said that the Afghan government will continue its efforts for talks with the Taliban.