KABUL, afghanistan — A bomb exploded 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 condemned the attack and denied any responsibility. Ambulances evacuated the wounded 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 spokesman Tariq Arian said. The death toll was expected to rise further. A resident Rahimi said the explosion 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.
The death toll in multiple blasts rises to over 50, more than 100 others were wounded in the incident. “It was a car bomb blast that occurred in front of the school entrance,” a witness told. 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.
