According to Khalid Zadran, a Kabul police spokesperson, and the emergency hospital, more casualties are being feared. Many of the injured were in critical condition, while others had been released.
The blasts took place at the Abdul Rahim Shaheed Secondary School, and nearby the Mumtaz Education Center which is several miles away. Both are located in the predominantly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. The Mumtaz Center was not affected by the explosions.
Guards on the narrow street that leads to the high school’s two-story building claimed they had seen 10 casualties. An Associated Press video journalist witnessed walls covered in blood, children’s shoes and notebooks being burned inside the school.
The AP spoke with several private guards who were stationed in the area, but they declined to identify themselves due to fear of being repercussions from Taliban security forces that have cordoned off the area.
Witnesses said that it appeared that a suicide bomber attacked the compound. It can accommodate up to 1,000 students. It was not immediately clear how many students were inside the school when the explosion occurred.
After the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan made a promise that all girls would be allowed to attend school, the school is now teaching students only.
Nobody has claimed immediate responsibility. This area was previously targeted by the Islamic State, a terrorist group that attacks Afghanistan and reviles Shiite Muslims.
Save the Children in Afghanistan released a statement condemning the attack, saying that “no school should ever be targeted deliberately” and “no child should be afraid of physical harm on the way to or from school.”
ISIS-K, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria affiliate, previously attacked schools in Dasht-e-Barchi, a Shiite-dominated neighborhood. Two bombs were set off outside their school in Dasht-e-Barchi, just months before the Taliban seized power in Kabul.
ISIS is the greatest security threat to the country’s Taliban rulers. They invaded Kabul last August after the United States ended their 20-year-old war.
