The toll in the multiple blasts outside a girls’ school in Afghanistan Capital Kabul crossed 50, while more than 100 were injured, TOLO News reported on Sunday, quoting the country’s ministry of interior.
The incident took place on Saturday afternoon after a car bomb explosion outside Sayed-ul-Shuhada High School was followed by two rocket attacks.
Tariq Arian, a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s interior ministry, told TOLO News the toll might increase. While Arian put the current toll at “over 50”, Reuters reported that 55 were dead, whereas Al Jazeera said the number was 58.
“It was a car bomb blast that occurred in front of the school entrance,” a witness told Reuters. He said all but seven or eight of the victims were schoolgirls going home after finishing their studies.
No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s blast yet. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning the attack, blaming the Taliban even as the group denied it, Al Jazeera reported.
“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 Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood, where the blasts took place, is populated by the minority Shia community and has been attacked frequently by the Islamic State group in the past, according to Al Jazeera.
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