The attack targeting girls at a school in a Shiite area amplifies concerns that Afghanistan will slip into sectarian violence as the U.S. withdraws.
Militants killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 100 in three explosions targeting girls outside a school in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Kabul, officials said, an attack that could exacerbate sectarian tensions ahead of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The blasts hit the Sayed Shuhada school in the Dasht-e Barchi area of west Kabul, an area populated largely by the Shiite Hazara community. The area has suffered a string of deadly attacks in recent months.
No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. In the past, Islamic State’s regional affiliate, which considers Shiites to have rejected Islam, usually took credit for attacks targeting Shiite civilians. While the Taliban harshly oppressed the Hazaras when the movement ruled most of Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban now say they tolerate the Shiite minority.
