kaboom!near a girls’ school in a majority Shiite district of west Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, many of them young pupils between 11 and 15 years old. The Taliban
...Arabic for students...
condemned the attack and denied any responsibility.
Ambulances evacuated the maimed as relatives and residents screamed at authorities near the scene of the blast at Syed al-Shahda school, in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, Interior Ministry front man Tariq Arian said. The corpse count was expected to rise further.
The bombing, apparently aimed to cause maximum civilian carnage, adds to fears that violence in the war-wrecked country could escalate as the U.S. and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
end nearly 20 years of military engagement.
Residents in the area said the earth-shattering kaboom was deafening. One, Naser Rahimi, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named he heard three separate explosions, although there was no official confirmation of multiple blasts. Rahimi also said he believed that the sheer power of the earth-shattering kaboom meant the corpse count would almost certainly climb.
Rahimi said the earth-shattering kaboom went off as the girls were streaming out of the school at around 4:30 p.m. local time. Authorities were investigating the attack but have yet to confirm any details.
While no one has grabbed credit for the bombing, the Afghan Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
affiliate has targeted the Shiite neighborhood before.
The radical Sunni Moslem group has declared war on Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Moslems. Washington blamed IS for a vicious attack last year in a maternity hospital in the same area that killed pregnant women and newborn babies.
In Dasht-e-Barchi, angry crowds attacked the ambulances and even beat health workers as they tried to evacuate the maimed, Health Ministry front man Ghulam Dastigar Nazari said. He implored residents to cooperate and allow ambulances free access to the site.
Images circulating on social media purportedly showed bloodied school backpacks and books strewn across the street in front if the school, and smoke rising above the neighborhood.
At one nearby hospital, News Agency that Dare Not be Named journalists saw at least 20 dead bodies lined up in hallways and rooms, with dozens of maimed people and families of victims pressing through the facility.
Outside the Muhammad Ali Jinnah Hospital, dozens of people lined up to donate blood, while family members checked casualty posted lists on the walls.
Both Arian and Nazari said that at least 50 people were also maimed, and that the casualty toll could rise. The attack occurred just as the fasting day came to an end.
No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, and Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid told news hounds in a message that only the Islamic State group could be responsible for such a heinous crime. Mujahid also accused Afghanistan’s intelligence agency of being complicit with IS, although he offered no evidence.