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Kabul suicide bomber kills 48 in tuition centre attack | Kabul suicide bomber kills 48 in tuition centre attack |
(35 minutes later) | |
Forty-eight people have been killed and 67 injured in a bomb explosion at an education centre in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, the country's health ministry says. | Forty-eight people have been killed and 67 injured in a bomb explosion at an education centre in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, the country's health ministry says. |
Police say a suicide bomber walked into the centre while teaching was under way and detonated his bomb belt. | Police say a suicide bomber walked into the centre while teaching was under way and detonated his bomb belt. |
Many of those killed are believed to be teenagers who were getting extra tuition as they prepared for university entrance exams. | Many of those killed are believed to be teenagers who were getting extra tuition as they prepared for university entrance exams. |
The Taliban has denied involvement. | The Taliban has denied involvement. |
This latest attack came hours after the Taliban said it could no longer guarantee safe passage for Red Cross staff working in Afghanistan, amid a row over the treatment of Taliban prisoners in a jail in Kabul. | |
The attack on the education centre took place in a mostly Shia Muslim neighbourhood of Kabul. | |
The Shia community in Afghanistan has been repeatedly targeted by Sunni Muslim extremists of the Islamic State group, which views the Shia practice of Islam as heretical. | |
"We can confirm the attack was caused by a suicide bomber on foot. The bomber detonated himself inside the education centre," police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai was quoted as saying by AFP news agency. | |
Meanwhile, local officials said at least nine policemen and 35 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military outpost in the northern province of Baghlan early on Wednesday morning. | |
Afghanistan has seen a recent upsurge in militant violence, including a major Taliban assault on the eastern city of Ghazni. | |
At least 100 members of the security forces were killed in the fighting at Ghazni, officials have said, with unconfirmed reports that dozens of civilians also died. |