SRINAGAR: A suicide bomber killed at least 48 students preparing for university exams in a Shia neighbourhood of Kabul, in an attack blamed on ISIS.
The Public Health Ministry said at least 67 people were also wounded in the attack, which struck a private building in the Shia Dasht-i Barcha area of the capital.
The explosion initially set off gunfire from Afghan guards in the area, leading to assumptions there were more attackers involved, but officials later said all indications were there was only one bomber
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Jawad Ghawari, a member of the city’s Shia clerical council, blamed the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which has carried similar attacks in the past, hitting mosques, schools and cultural centres.
In the past two years, Ghawari said there were at least 13 attacks on the Shia community in Kabul alone.
Abdul Hossain Hossainzada, a Shia community leader in the western Kabul neighbourhood, said the bomber apparently targeted the course, which had young men and women studying together.
Both the resurgent Taliban and the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan target Shia, considering them to be heretics. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, denied any involvement by the group in the Kabul attack.
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