Last Updated: Tuesday, 23 May 2023, 12:44 GMT

Islamic State claims Kabul Shi'ite attack

Publisher Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Publication Date 16 August 2018
Cite as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Islamic State claims Kabul Shi'ite attack, 16 August 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc052a16.html [accessed 23 May 2023]
DisclaimerThis is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Last Updated: August 16, 2018 09:54 GMT

By RFE/RL

Suicide Bomber Kills Dozens In KabulSuicide Bomber Kills Dozens In Kabul

The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in a Shi'ite area of Kabul on August 15.

Earlier on August 16, Afghan authorities revised the death toll from the attack to 34 killed from their earlier reports of 48 dead.

Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh said that 56 people were wounded in the bombing in the neighborhood of Dasht-e Barchi when the bomber walked into a building where high-school graduates were preparing for university entrance exams and blew himself up.

Authorities a day earlier had said 67 people were wounded.

Most of the victims were young men and women studying together at a private education center in the western Kabul neighborhood.

Fifteen of the victims' bodies were taken to an ethnic Hazara community compound in Kabul where a mass funeral service was being held on August 16.

Other victims were being taken to their villages near Kabul to be buried there.

IS extremists have carried out similar attacks in the past, hitting Shi'ite mosques, schools, and cultural centers.

Jawad Ghawari, a member of the city's Shi'ite clerical council, said there were at least 13 attacks on the Shi'ite community in the past two years in Kabul alone.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan

Link to original story on RFE/RL website

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