The death toll in a horrific bombing at a girls' school in the Afghan capital has soared to 58, many of them pupils between 11 and 15 years old, with doctors struggling to provide medical care to at least 150 wounded, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Sunday.
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The bombing on Saturday evening shook the city's Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. The community, a religious minority in Afghanistan, has been targeted in the past by the Islamic State group.
The radical Sunni Muslim group has declared war on Afghanistan's Shiites. Washington blamed ISIS for a vicious attack last year in a maternity hospital in the same area that killed pregnant women and newborn babies.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday blamed the attack on Taliban insurgents but a spokesman for the Taliban denied involvement, saying the group condemns any attacks on Afghan civilians.
Families of the victims blamed the Afghan government and Western powers for failing to put an end to violence and the ongoing war.
Three explosions outside the Syed Al-Shahda school entrance struck as students were leaving for the day, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said.
The first explosion came from a vehicle packed with explosives, followed by two others, said Arian, adding that the casualty figures could still rise.
In the capital rattled by relentless bombings, Saturday's attack was among the worst. Criticism has mounted over lack of security and growing fears of even more violence as the US and NATO forces complete their final military withdrawal from the country.
Soon after the bombing, angry crowds attacked ambulances and even beat health workers as they tried to evacuate the wounded, Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigar Nazari said. He had implored residents to cooperate and allow ambulances free access to the site.
Bloodied backpacks and school books lay strewn outside the school. In the morning, boys attend classes in the sprawling school compound and in the afternoon it is the girls' turn.
Residents in the area said the explosion was deafening. Naser Rahimi told The Associated Press he heard three separate explosions, and immediately thought that the sheer power of the blasts meant the death toll would almost certainly climb.
One of the students fleeing the school recalled the attack, the screams of the girls, the blood.
"I was with my classmate, we were leaving the school, when suddenly an explosion happened, " said 15-year-old Zahra, whose arm had been broken by a piece of shrapnel.
"Ten minutes later there was another explosion and just a couple of minutes later another explosion," she said. "Everyone was yelling and there was blood everywhere, and I couldn't see anything clearly." Her friend died.
The top US military officer said Sunday that Afghan government forces face an uncertain future and possibly some "bad possible outcomes" against Taliban insurgents as the withdrawal accelerates in the coming weeks.
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