The death toll from multiple explosions outside a school in Afghanistan\u2019s capital Kabul has risen to 68, Afghan officials said on Sunday, with doctors struggling to provide medical care to 165 injured and officials trying to identify bodies.
\nMultiple blasts on Saturday evening \u2014 the deadliest in more than a year \u2014 shook the neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, home to a large community of Shi\u2019ites from the Hazara ethnic minority \u2014 a regular target of militants.
\nAt first, a car bomb was detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school on Saturday, and when the students rushed out in panic, two more bombs exploded.
\nOfficials said most of those killed were school girls. Some families were still searching hospitals for their missing children.
\nThe blasts came as the United States military continues to pull out its last 2,500 troops from the violence-wracked country despite faltering peace efforts between the Taliban and Afghan government to end a decades-long war.
\nDescribing Saturday\u2019s carnage, Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told reporters that a car bomb first detonated in front of the Sayed Al Shuhada School, and when the students rushed out in panic, two more devices exploded.
\nHe said more than 100 people were wounded, adding that most of the victims were female students.
\nResidents were out shopping ahead of this week\u2019s Eidul Fitr, which marks the end of Ramazan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
\nOn Sunday relatives began burying the dead at a hilltop site known as \u201cMartyrs Cemetery\u201d.
\nNo group has so far claimed the attack, but Afghan officials including President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban.
\n\u201cThis savage group does not have the power to confront security forces on the battlefield, and instead targets with brutality and barbarism public facilities and the girls\u2019 school,\u201d Ghani said in a statement after the blasts.
\nThe insurgents have denied involvement and insist they have not carried out attacks in Kabul since February last year, when they signed a deal with the United States that paved the way for peace talks and withdrawal of the remaining US troops.
\nBut the group has clashed in near-daily battles with Afghan forces in the rugged countryside even as the US military reduces its presence.
\nThe United States was supposed to have pulled all forces out by May 1 under a deal struck with the Taliban last year, but Washington pushed back the date to September 11 \u2014 a move that angered the insurgents.
\nThe top US diplomat in Kabul, Ross Wilson, called Saturday\u2019s blasts \u201cabhorrent\u201d.
\n\u201cThis unforgivable attack on children is an assault on Afghanistan\u2019s future, which cannot stand,\u201d Wilson said on Twitter.
\nThe Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood has been a regular target of attacks from Islamist militants.
\nIn May last year, a group of gunmen attacked a hospital in the area in a brazen daylight raid that left 25 people dead, including 16 mothers of newborn babies.
\nOn October 24, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a tuition centre in the same district, killing 18 people in an attack that also went unclaimed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The death toll from multiple explosions outside a school in Afghanistan\u2019s capital Kabul has risen to 68, Afghan officials said on Sunday, with doctors struggling to provide medical care to 165 injured and officials trying to identify bodies. Multiple blasts on Saturday evening \u2014 the deadliest in more than a year \u2014 shook the neighbourhood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n