At least 26 killed, 2 schools torched in terror attacks
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan — Four attacks across Afghanistan on Saturday night and Sunday killed at least 26 government security officers, while two schools were also set ablaze, according to Afghan officials.
The attacks struck government outposts in northern and eastern Afghanistan; at least three appeared coordinated. They occurred late at night or early in the morning, with the attackers using long-range sniper rifles and night-vision equipment, according to Afghan officials, who tallied at least 10 wounded along with those killed.
In separate assaults, a girls’ high school in Logar province, near the capital, Kabul, was burned on Wednesday, and masked attackers struck a school in the village of Momandara, in Nangarhar province, on Saturday night, setting archives and labs ablaze, according to education officials.
No one was reported hurt in those two attacks.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but government officials blamed Taliban insurgents for the attacks on the government outposts. In recent years, mainstream Taliban forces have normally refrained from attacking schools.
The girls’ high school in Logar province, in a village in Mohammad Agha District, was attacked by gunmen who beat up the night watchmen and locked them in a room, then set the school afire, according to Kabir Haqmal, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education. It was unclear why the attack had not been previously disclosed.
In Nangarhar province, the attack in Momandara was the third time a school in that district had been targeted in the past month, according to Mohammad Asif Shinwari, a spokesman for the provincial education ministry.
Attacks by insurgents using sophisticated night-vision technology have risen in the past year, especially against police and militia units that do not have such equipment. Afghan officials have asked for the gear to be issued to their police officers, but U.S. officials have been reluctant to do so for fear that it would fall into Taliban hands.