Militants Attack Afghan Schoolgirls, Killing 25 People in Blast

No group claimed responsibility for the bombings, and it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosions. Footage circulated on social media showed a burned-out car by the school, suggesting the militants had used a car bomb.

In the past, Islamic State’s regional affiliate, which considers Shiites to have rejected Islam, usually took credit for attacks targeting Shiite civilians. While the Taliban harshly oppressed the Hazaras when the movement ruled most of Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban now say they tolerate the Shiite minority. A Taliban spokesman tweeted to condemn Saturday’s attack, accusing Islamic State of being behind it.

The Sayeda Shuhada school is home to male and female students studying in separate shifts. The explosions went off in the afternoon, as girls were leaving for the day.

Afghan Ministry of Interior spokesman Tariq Arian said 52 people were also injured. It was not immediately clear how many of the victims were children. A senior security official provided pictures and footage from a nearby hospital showing at least 16 bodies.

Many Hazaras, a Shiite minority in a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, vehemently criticize the government for failing to protect them. Following Saturday’s bombing, incensed residents of the area attacked police officers and prevented security forces from entering the scene, making it impossible to immediately assess what exactly had caused the explosions, said a senior security official.

A witness living near the school said he was walking on the street when the first blast ripped through Dasht-e Barchi. “I saw a plume of smoke rising from the side of the school. Then I heard two back-to-back explosions,” said the resident who asked not to be named because of security concerns. “I saw people rushing towards the school to find their children. I also saw people transferring dead and wounded students to the nearby hospital. Sirens of ambulances were everywhere right after the blast.”

The attack is likely to exacerbate fears in Afghanistan that the country will slip into further violence and perhaps a sectarian civil war as the U.S. draws down its remaining troops from the country ahead of President Biden’s Sept. 11 deadline. American officials have suggested the pullout could be completed as soon as July.

President Biden’s decision to exit Afghanistan follows an agreement from February last year between the Taliban and the Trump administration, in which the insurgents committed to enter peace talks with the Afghan government. However, American efforts to clinch such a peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government before a full withdrawal have stalled. Instead, the Taliban have continued in recent days to push an offensive against Afghan government forces, inching closer to several provincial capitals. Islamic State, meanwhile, is pursuing a separate insurgency in parts of the country.

Kabul’s Hazara community has suffered multiple recent horrific attacks, including on a maternity clinic last year, which killed 16, including babies, and an educational center in October, which killed at least 24. Islamic State claimed responsibility for both those attacks, as well as for an assault on Kabul University in November, in which gunmen killed at least 19 people.

Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at [email protected]