Multiple blasts near Kabul school hurt at least 7 children
Apr 19, 2022, 1:14 AM | Updated: 1:36 am
KABUL, Afghanstan (AP) — Explosions targeting educational centers injured at least seven children in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul on Tuesday in a mostly Shiite neighborhood, police said.
The blasts, which occurred in rapid succession, hurt several children and more casualties were feared, according to Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran and the city’s Emergency Hospital.
The explosions occurred inside the Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul and near a second education center several kilometers (miles) away.
Guards in the narrow street leading to the two-story high school said they saw 10 casualties. Inside the school, an Associated Press video journalist saw walls splattered with blood, burned notebooks and children’s shoes.
The AP spoke to several private guards in the area but they refused to give their names, fearing repercussions from the Taliban security force cordening off the area.
It appeared a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the sprawling compound, which can house up to 1,000 students, witnesses said. It wasn’t immediately clear how many children were in the school at the time of the explosion.
The school is teaching students only until the sixth grade after Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban rulers went back on a promise to allow all girls to attend school.
No one has immediately claimed responsibility. The area has been targeted in the past by Afghanistan’s deadly Islamic State affiliate, which reviles Shiite Muslims as heretics.
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