Miami Herald (Sunday)

Bomb kills more than 30, including young students near school in Afghanista­n

- BY NABIH BULOS Los Angeles Times

Bomb kills more than 30 people, including young students, near school in Afghan capital

A blast ripped through an area near a high school in the Afghan capital Saturday, government officials said, killing more than 30 people — many of them schoolchil­dren — and wounding scores of others.

So far no group has claimed responsibi­lity for the attack, which occurred some time after 4 p.m. and appeared timed to cause maximum damage: when dozens of mostly teenage schoolgirl­s were leaving the Kawsar Institute, an educationa­l center near the Sayed Ul-Shuhada High School in west Kabul’s Dashti Barchi neighborho­od, with families out shopping before Iftar, the evening breaking of the Ramadan fast.

The area is heavily dominated by the Hazara, an ethnic minority that is Shiite Muslim and a frequent target of Islamic State.

Many of the casualties were taken to the Mohammad Ali Jinnah hospital in west Kabul, with people coming forward to donate blood for the wounded. Elsewhere, parents and family members began the grim task of burying their dead. The Interior Ministry said at least 30 people were killed, with 52 others wounded. The death toll was expected to rise.

In the hours after the blast, residents and journalist­s shared harrowing images of students sprawled on the ground, with schoolbook­s and blood-spattered sneakers scattered around them.

It remained unclear if the attack was the work of a solitary suicide bomber with an explosive vest walking up to the institute’s gates, a car bomb or a series of explosions involving rockets as part of a larger onslaught on Dashti Barchi.

Whatever the cause, the blast, which coincides with U.S. and NATO troops filtering out of the country, intensifie­s fears of increased violence against minorities in the country’s post-withdrawal future. Meanwhile, talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have stalled, with the group beginning a spring offensive that has seen a new wave of attacks across the country.

The Taliban denied involvemen­t in the explosion.

“We condemn today’s blast in Dashti Barchi #Kabul which targeted civilians & sadly caused heavy losses,” tweeted Zabiullah Mojahid, a Taliban spokesman, on Saturday.

Instead, he blamed the attack on “sinister circles operating in the name of Daesh under the wings & intelligen­ce cover of #Kabul admin,” referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.

The Sunni extremist group counts Shiites as apostates who must be killed. It claimed responsibi­lity for similar explosions in the area in October as well as August 2018, with students the main victims of both attacks.

The United Nations’ mission in Afghanista­n expressed “its deep revulsion” at the blast in a tweet Saturday evening, describing it as “an atrocity” that had killed and injured many civilians.

U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson tweeted, “This terrorist attack on a Kabul girls’ school is abhorrent. With scores murdered, this unforgivab­le attack on children is an assault on Afghanista­n’s future, which cannot stand. My deepest condolence­s to the students & families who have suffered.”

Even as Islamic State has been degraded in Afghanista­n, according to government and U.S. officials, it has stepped up its attacks against Shiite Muslims and female workers.

Earlier the group took responsibi­lity for the targeted killing of three female media personnel in eastern Afghanista­n.

The attack comes days after the remaining 2,500 to 3,500 American troops officially began leaving the country.

 ?? RAHMAT GUL AP ?? Afghan men try to identify the dead bodies at a hospital after a bomb explosion near a school west of Kabul, Afghanista­n, on Saturday.
RAHMAT GUL AP Afghan men try to identify the dead bodies at a hospital after a bomb explosion near a school west of Kabul, Afghanista­n, on Saturday.

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