At least 30 dead in Afghan terror attack

Many students from a nearby school among the dead as fatalities from the Kabul blast expected to rise

KABUL: A bomb exploded near a girls’ school in a majority Shia district of west Kabul on Saturday, killing more than 30 people, many of them young pupils between 11 and 15 years old.

“More than 30 students and other countrymen have been killed, and over 50 more were wounded. The toll is rising.” interior ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told reporters.

The bombing, apparently aimed to cause maximum civilian carnage, adds to fears that violence in the war-wrecked country could escalate as the US and NATO end nearly 20 years of military engagement.

Residents in the area said the explosion was deafening. One, Naser Rahimi, told The Associated Press he heard three separate explosions, although there was no official confirmation of multiple blasts.

Rahimi said the explosion went off as the girls were streaming out of the school at around 4.30pm local time.

In Dasht-e-barchi, angry crowds attacked the ambulances and even beat health workers as they tried to evacuate the wounded, health ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigar Nazari said.

He implored residents to cooperate and allow ambulances free access to the site. Images circulating on social media purportedly showed bloodied school backpacks and books strewn across the street in front if the school, and smoke rising above the neighbourhood.

At one nearby hospital, Associated Press journalists saw at least 20 dead bodies lined up in hallways and rooms, with dozens of wounded people and families of victims pressing through the facility.

Both Arian and Nazari said that at least 50 people were also wounded, and that the casualty toll could rise. The attack occurred just as the fasting day came to an end.

Authorities were investigating the attack but have yet to confirm any details. While no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, the Afghan Islamic

State affiliate has targeted the Shia neighbourhood before. The radical Sunni Muslim group has declared war on Afghanistan’s minority Shia Muslims.

Meanwhile, the Taliban denied any responsibility, while condemning the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters in a message that only the Islamic State group could be responsible for such a heinous crime.

Mujahid also accused Afghanistan’s intelligence agency of being complicit with IS, although he offered no evidence.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban.

“The Taliban, by escalating their illegitimate war and violence, have once again shown that they are not only reluctant to resolve the current crisis peacefully and fundamentally, but by complicating the situation,” Ghani said.

The top US diplomat in Kabul, Ross Wilson, called the blast “abhorrent”, tweeting: “With scores murdered, this unforgivable attack on children is an assault on Afghanistan’s future, which cannot stand.”

The European Union delegation in Afghanistan condemned what it said was a “despicable act of terrorism”.