Afghanistan bomb attack targeting schoolgirls kills at least 50 people

The attack on Shiite area amplifies concerns that Afghanistan will slip into sectarian violence as the US withdraws.

An injured man is brought to hospital following the deadly blast at Sayed Shuhada school in Kabul on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Militants killed at least 50 people in three explosions targeting girls outside a school in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood in Kabul, an attack that could exacerbate sectarian tensions ahead of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The blasts hit the Sayed Shuhada school in the Dasht-e Barchi area of west Kabul, an area populated largely by the Shia Hazara community. The area has suffered a string of deadly attacks in recent months.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. In the past, Islamic State’s regional affiliate, which considers Shi’ites 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. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, however, blamed the Taliban. In a statement condemning the bombings, he said that “the Taliban, by intensifying their illegitimate war and violence, showed that they have no interest in a peaceful solution to the current crisis.”

The Sayed 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.

“We never thought they would target a school,” said Najiba Hasani, whose 16-year-old daughter Raisa was injured in the attack. Ms Hasani, who is illiterate, said she had insisted that her daughter must get an education to create a better life for herself: “It’s her time to thrive, to have an easy life. Not like me.”

Raisa’s father, Bagher Ibrahimi, a labourer, said he ran several kilometres from his house to the school once he heard the explosion and then searched frantically among discarded books, bags and shoes. All those injured in the attack had by then been moved to a hospital, leaving behind a bloodied sidewalk and pieces of flesh hanging from the electricity wires, he said.

Mr Ibrahimi eventually found Raisa drifting between unconsciousness and loud screaming, and took her to a clinic operated by Italy’s Emergency aid group in central Kabul. He said her condition has since stabilised.

Several eyewitnesses said the first explosion was caused by a minivan that blew up outside the school, followed by two smaller blasts in short succession about 10 minutes later, which injured people who had rushed to the scene to help the wounded. Staff at the Emergency hospital said the two follow-up blasts appeared to have been caused by improvised explosive devices.

Saturday’s attack is likely to intensify fears in Afghanistan that the country will slip into further violence and perhaps a sectarian civil war as the US withdraws its remaining troops from the country. While the Biden administration set Sept. 11 as the deadline for all U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan, American officials have suggested that the pullout could be completed as soon as July 4.

Achievements made by Afghan women over the past 20 years, particularly in girls’ education, would be most at risk amid a deteriorating security situation, as militants intensify attacks and try to seize more territory from the embattled Afghan government.

Many Hazaras, a minority in a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, vehemently criticise Mr Ghani’s government as failing to protect them. Following Saturday’s bombing, residents of the area attacked police officers and prevented security forces from entering the scene, said a senior security official said.

If Islamic State was behind Saturday’s bombing, it was likely meant to spark sectarian strife by showing that Mr Ghani’s government is unable to protect the Hazara community, said Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst focusing on Afghan affairs. “Such attacks continue to alienate the Hazara minority from the government,” he said.

Mr Biden’s decision to exit Afghanistan no later than Sept. 11 follows a February 2020 deal between the Taliban and the Trump administration that committed the insurgents to enter peace talks with the Afghan government.

However, American efforts to clinch a peace settlement 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. Last week, a truck laden with explosives blew up outside a guesthouse in the eastern province of Logar, killing 27 people.

Islamic State, meanwhile, is pursuing a separate insurgency in parts of the country. Since its founding in early 2015, Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate has suffered massive casualties from U.S. airstrikes. But, despite losing many of its strongholds in eastern Afghanistan, Islamic State has remained capable of orchestrating large-scale terrorist attacks in Afghan cities, especially Kabul.

Kabul’s Hazara community has borne the brunt of those attacks, including on a maternity clinic last year, which killed 16, including babies, and an educational centre in October, which killed at least 24. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for an assault on Kabul University in November, in which gunmen killed at least 19 people.

Islamic State in Afghanistan has recruited scores of foreign fighters and Taliban defectors. The group espouses a more radical Islamist ideology than the Taliban, and has primarily targeted civilians. Though the two groups have frequently clashed, Afghan government officials accuse the Taliban of collaborating with Islamic State to perpetrate attacks in Kabul.

The Wall Street Journal