Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 16 augusT 2018
Suicide bomber targets Shiite students in Kabul, killing 48

By RAHIM FAIEZ kilometers (75 miles) from
AMIR SHAH the Afghan capital with a
Associated Press population of some 270,000
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — people.
A suicide bomber struck a At least 35 Ghazni civilians
private education center have been killed, said Arif
in a Shiite neighborhood Noori, a spokesman for the
of Kabul on Wednesday provincial governor. The
where high school gradu- wounded were still arriv-
ates were preparing for ing at the city's only hospi-
university entrance exams, tal, which has been over-
killing 48 young men and whelmed by casualties, he
women and leaving be- added.
hind a scene of devasta- Hundreds of people have
tion and tragedy. fled the fighting in Ghazni,
The bombing, blamed on which has also killed about
the Islamic State group, 100 members of the Af-
was the latest assault on Af- ghan security forces.
ghanistan's Shiite commu- Elsewhere in Afghanistan,
nity, which has increasingly the Taliban attacked a
been targeted by Sunni ex- police checkpoint in the
tremists who consider Shi- southern Zabul province
ites to be heretics. early Wednesday, killing
It also showed how militants four policemen, accord-
are still able to stage large- ing to the provincial police
scale attacks, even in the chief, Mustafa Mayar.
heart of Kabul, and under- The Taliban have seized
scored the struggles of the several districts across the
Afghan forces to provide country in recent years
security and stability on Afghan men stand near a damaged house following a Taliban attack in Ghazni, Afghanistan, and carry out near-daily
their own. Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018. attacks targeting Afghan
The attack comes amid a Associated Press security forces. The assault
particularly bloody week in on Ghazni was widely seen
Afghanistan that has seen "There was blood every- an investigation into the called local police, militias as a show of force ahead
Taliban attacks kill scores where, all over the room, attack. recruited and paid by the of possible peace talks with
of Afghan troops and civil- so scary and horrible," he "By targeting educational Interior Ministry. the U.S., which has been at
ians. said. After finding out that and cultural centers, ter- At least nine security forc- war in Afghanistan for near-
It was not immediately his daughter was safe, he rorists have clearly shown es were still missing and ly 17 years.
clear how the bomber helped move the wound- they are against all those Is- four others were wounded Also Wednesday, six chil-
managed to sneak into the ed to hospitals. lamic principles (that strive) in the attack, said Abdul dren were killed when they
building, used by the Shiite Fareba was traumatized for both men and women Hai Nemati, the governor tinkered with an unexplod-
community as an educa- that so many of her friends to learn and study," Ghani of Baghlan. He said rein- ed rocket shell, causing it to
tion center, in the Dasht-i were killed, but Hossain said said in a statement. forcements have been dis- blow up, said Sarhadi Zwak,
Barcha area of Kabul. she was lucky to be alive. The head of the U.N. chil- patched to help recapture spokesman for the gover-
The spokesman for the The explosion initially set off dren's agency denounced the checkpoints. nor of the eastern Lagh-
public health ministry, Wa- gunfire from Afghan guards the attack, saying it's "de- Taliban spokesman Zabi- man province. The victims
hid Majroh, said 67 people in the area, leading to as- plorable" that children hullah Mujahid claimed re- were girls, aged 10-12, who
were also wounded in the sumptions that there were continue to be hardest hit sponsibility for the assault. were gathering firewood,
bombing and that the more attackers involved, in the growing violence Life was gradually return- he said, blaming the Tal-
death toll — which steadily but officials later said all in- across Afghanistan. ing to normal Wednesday iban.
rose in the immediate af- dications were that there "Children are not, and must in parts of the eastern city Afghanistan is littered with
termath of the bombing was only one bomber. never be the target of vio- of Ghazni after a massive, unexploded ordnance left
— could rise further. He No group immediately lence," said UNICEF's ex- days-long Taliban attack, by decades of war. It is
did not say if all the victims claimed responsibility for ecutive director Henrietta though sporadic gunbat- also plagued by roadside
were students and whether the attack but Jawad Fore. tles was still underway in bombs planted by insur-
any of their teachers were Ghawari, a member of the Meanwhile, a Taliban as- some neighborhoods. gents, which are usually
also among the casualties. city's Shiite clerical coun- sault on two adjacent The Taliban launched a intended for government
Dawlat Hossain, father of cil, blamed IS, which has checkpoints in northern Af- coordinated offensive last officials or security forces,
18-year-old student Fareba carried similar attacks on ghanistan late on Tuesday Friday, overwhelming the but often kill and maim
who had left her class just Shiites in the past, hitting night killed at least 30 sol- city's defenses and captur- civilians.q
a few minutes before the mosques, schools and cul- diers and policemen. ing several neighborhoods.
bombing but was still inside tural centers. In the past The attack took place Afghan forces repelled
the compound, was on his two years, there were at in Baghlan province's the initial assault and in re-
way to meet his daughter least 13 attacks on the Baghlan-I Markazi district, cent days have struggled
and started running when Shiite community in Kabul said Mohammad Safdar to flush the insurgents out
he heard the explosion. alone, he said. Mohseni, the head of the of residential areas where
Hossain recounted to The Afghan President Ashraf provincial council. they are holed up.
Associated Press how when Ghani condemned the Dilawar Aymaq, a parlia- The United States and
he entered Fareba's class- "terrorist" attack that "mar- mentarian from Baghlan, NATO launched airstrikes
room, he saw parts of hu- tyred and wounded the in- said the attack targeted and sent military advisers to
man bodies all over student nocent" — students attend- a military checkpoint and aid Afghan forces as they
desks and benches. ing class — and ordered another manned by the so- fight for the city, just 120