Afghans bury schoolchildren killed by deadly blasts

Some of the children killed outside a secondary school in Kabul on Saturday have been buried – as other relatives are still searching for the missing.

More than 60 people – mostly girls – died in the explosions that occurred as students were leaving the building.

No-one has admitted carrying out the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi – an area often hit by Sunni Islamist militants.

Afghan government officials blamed Taliban militants for the attack, but the group denied any involvement.

Nobel Prize winner and activist Malala Yousafzai – who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 – posted about the “horrendous attack” on Twitter.

“My heart is with the Kabul school victims’ families,” she wrote.

The exact target for Saturday’s bloodshed is unclear. The blasts come against a backdrop of rising violence as the US looks to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by September 11.

The explosions are believed to have been caused by a car bomb and two improvised explosive devices planted in the area.

One survivor, Zahra, told reporters she was leaving the school as the blasts took place.

“My classmate died. A few minutes later there was another explosion, and then another. Everyone was screaming and there was blood everywhere,” she said.

Several witnesses described hearing three separate explosions, while one woman, Reza, told AFP news agency she had seen “many bloodied bodies in dust and smoke”.

“I saw a woman checking the bodies and calling for her daughter,” Reza said. “She then found her daughter’s bloodstained purse after which she fainted and fell to the ground.”

More than 150 people were injured in the attack. Reports from Kabul say the city was busy with shoppers ahead of this year’s celebrations for Eid al-Fitr this week.

Najiba Arian, ministry of education spokeswoman, told Reuters news agency the government-run school was open to boys and girls. Most of those hurt were girls, who study in the second of three sessions, according to Ms Arian.

Afghanistan is seeing increasing violence as the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) prepare to pull out all remaining forces from the country on September 11.

On Saturday the US state department condemned “the barbarous attack”.

“We call for an immediate end to violence and the senseless targeting of innocent civilians,” it said.–AFP/Reuters