JAKARTA - A suicide bombing in an education center, the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, killed 24 people including teenage students and injured dozens of others on Saturday, October 24 local time.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Tariq Arian, said security guards had identified a bomber who detonated explosives on a road outside the Danish education center, Kawsar-e.
Most of the victims were students aged 15-26, according to the Afghan Ministry of Health. Fifty-seven people were injured in the attack, the interior ministry said.
A teacher at the Kawsar-e center, who asked not to be named due to safety concerns, said he and other teaching staff were shocked by the attacks targeting an institution that has provided guidance to thousands of street children towards higher education.
"All students are full of energy, including poor families but hope for a brighter future," he said.
Family members gathered at a nearby hospital, looking for missing loved ones among body bags containing the remains of the dead lying on the hospital floor, while officers outside pushed injured patients on stretchers for treatment, said one person. Reuters eye witness.
The attack, which is condemned by NATO and the Afghan government, took place in the western Kabul area which is home to many of the country's many Shiite communities. Shia is a minority religion in Afghanistan that has been targeted by groups like ISIS in the past.
A Taliban spokesman on Twitter denied responsibility for the attack, which occurred at a crucial time when teams representing the rebels and the government met in Qatar to seek a peace deal.
ISIS claimed responsibility in a statement on Telegram, without providing evidence.
Dozens of students were killed in the same area of Kabul in attacks on another education center in 2018.
The latest attacks come after heavy fighting in several provinces in recent weeks, which has displaced thousands of civilians.
The United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad on Sunday morning on Twitter called for an immediate reduction in violence and an acceleration in the peace process.
He was referring to escalating violence in the country in recent weeks, including findings by the human rights commission that an air strike by the Afghan government had killed 12 children.
"How much more can we endure, as individuals and as a society? How many times can we rise?" asked Shaharzad Akbar, chairman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission on Twitter shortly after the attacks.
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