Yesterday, Saturday, May 8, two bombs were detonated in front of a girls ‘ school in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least 50 people and injured over 100. This is the bloodiest attack in Afghanistan in over a year.
The explosion occurred in the District of Dasht-e-Barchi, mainly inhabited by the Hazara Shia minority, west of the Afghan capital, as residents were shopping for the approach of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, scheduled for next week. The school was a high school attended by boys and girls, who study in three different time slots, the second of which was that of girls.
“The nature of one of the explosions was a car bomb explosion. Two more explosions were caused by improvised explosive devices placed in the same location, ” the Kabul police spokesman told reporters Ferdaus Faramarz. The attack happened when the students were leaving the building. Most of the victims were students, while many passers-by were also affected. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban militant group denied the involvement of its rebels in the incident and blamed Islamic State (IS) militants for the deadly attack. The Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the attack and instructed health officials to provide the best possible medical care to the injured.
Saturday’s blasts came as the U.S. military continues to withdraw its last 2,500 troops from the violence-ravaged country, despite faltering peace efforts between the Taliban and the Afghan government to end a decades-long war. Relatives of the victims have begun burying the dead at a hilltop site known as the” Martyrs ‘Cemetery,” were victims of attacks on the hazara community rest. Hazaras are Shiite Muslims and considered heretics by Sunni extremists. Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the Afghan population.
