KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The number of people injured in the explosion at a private school in western Kabul has risen to 52, most of them children, local media outlet TOLOnews reported.
The blast occurred at around 5 p.m. local time on Monday in the courtyard of Sham-e-Hedayat School in Mahdia Township, Dasht-e-Barchi, as students were leaving their classrooms, health officials said earlier.
local sources said the explosion was caused by a grenade thrown from an alley opposite the school.
Taliban authorities confirmed the incident. The group’s Interior Ministry spokesperson Khalid Zadran said several children were injured and that an investigation is underway.
No group or individual immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Dasht-e-Barchi, a densely populated area of western Kabul predominantly inhabited by Afghanistan’s Shia Hazara community, has faced repeated deadly attacks in recent years, many of them claimed by ISIS-K, the regional affiliate of Islamic State.
While the Taliban authorities say security has improved across Afghanistan since their return to power, such attacks continue to occur, with ethnic and religious minorities often among the targets.
In its latest report released in June, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recorded 3,687 safety and security incidents across Afghanistan in the three months from February to April this year, a rise of more than 57% compared with the same period last year.
