A suicide bombing at an education centre in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul killed 24 people including teenage students and wounded dozens more yesterday.
A Ministry of Interior spokesman said security guards had identified a bomber who detonated explosives in the street outside the Kawsar-e Danish centre.
Most of the victims were students aged between 15 and 26, according to the health ministry. Fifty-seven were injured in the attack.
A Taliban spokesman on Twitter denied responsibility for the attack, which came at a sensitive time as teams representing the insurgents and the government meet in Qatar to seek a peace deal.
Islamic State claimed responsibility in a statement on Telegram, without providing evidence.
The attack, which was condemned by NATO and the Afghan government, took place in an area of west Kabul that is home to many from the country’s Shia community, a religious minority in Afghanistan targeted in the past by groups such as Islamic State.
Dozens of students died in the same area of Kabul in an attack on another education centre in 2018.
The latest attack came on the back of heavy fighting in multiple provinces in recent weeks, which has displaced thousands of civilians.
The U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad early today on Twitter called again for an immediate reduction in violence and an acceleration in the peace process, citing rising violence in the country in recent weeks including a finding by the human rights commission that an Afghan government airstrike had killed 12 children.
