Kabul, May 9: The death toll from an explosion outside a school in Afghanistan's capital city Kabul has risen to 58, Afghan officials say.
Officials said on Sunday that medical staff in hospitals were struggling to provide medical care to at least 150 people, mostly schoolgirls, who were injured in the blast on Saturday.
The blast occurred in front of a school in the Shia majority neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi in western Kabul.
An eyewitness reported that the victims of the attack were mostly female students headed on their way back home after finishing school.
The death toll in the blasts might increase, Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said on Sunday.
According to the ministry, there were a total of three consecutive blasts in the afternoon near Kabul’s Seyyed ul-Shohada Girls School in Dasht-e-Barchi.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the Taliban militant group was responsible for the attack.
The Taliban, however, did not claim responsibility for the blast.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned the terrorist attack in Kabul.
Khatibzadeh described the attack against civilians as detestable, particularly as the targets were girl students. He offered condolences to the survivors and families of those killed in the attack.
The violent attack came a week after the United States and its NATO allies began pulling their troops and military hardware out of Afghanistan.
US President Joe Biden announced the schedule to complete the drawdown of US forces by September 11.
The Taliban have issued a warning, pledging to attack US troops if they failed to withdraw as scheduled.
Twenty years on, violence is increasingly rampant in the conflict-stricken country.
Comments
Add new comment