Bombing outside school kills at least 50

Attack renews fears girls’ social, education gains will soon be lost

KABUL, Afghanistan — Powerful explosions outside a high school in Afghanistan’s capital on Saturday killed at least 50 people, many of them pupils between 11 and 15 years old, and wounded more than 100 others in a gruesome attack that underscored fears about the nation’s future after the impending U.S. troop withdrawal.

The blast — and the targeting of girls as they left Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school — comes as rights groups and others have raised alarm that the U.S. troop withdrawal will leave women, and their educational and social gains, particularly vulnerable.

The hope surrounding the U.S. withdrawal deal with the Taliban was that it might open the way for a lasting cease-fire, and a respite for civilians who are being killed in horrific numbers. But the reality as U.S. troops depart is being driven home by massacres like this one.

Details of the attack were murky. It is unclear if it was a coordinated assault, or involved car bombs or a suicide vest — or a combination of all three.

In recent weeks, the Taliban’s public statements have mostly been triumphal, leaving many fearing that the insurgents will try to seize power through a bloody military victory with the U.S. and international forces gone.

On social media, the Taliban denied responsibility and condemned the attack, which happened in a district of the capital where many residents are of the Hazara ethnic minority. The Hazara are a mostly Shiite group in a country rampant with Sunni militants.

Sayed Ul-Shuhada hosts classes for boys in the morning and for girls in the afternoon. The attack occurred around 4 p.m., as the girls were leaving and the streets were packed with residents preparing for the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

What happened Saturday, for all its brutality, has become painfully common for Kabul, a capital city that has been rocked by terrifying violence for years.

But the attack on Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school comes at an inflection point, as U.S. and international forces leave and the next chapter of Afghanistan’s enduring war begins to unfold.

“I have lost count of attacks harming children. I have lost count of attacks on education,” Shaharzad Akbar, the chairwoman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said on social media. “I have lost count of civilians killed even just this month. This war must stop. This madness, this hurt, this pain.”

Associated Press contributed to this report.