ISLAMBAD, Pakistan (AP) – At least 10 students were killed in a bombing at a religious school in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Taliban officials said.
The blast occurred around afternoon prayers at the al-Jihad madrasah in Aibak, capital of Samangan province, a city resident who heard the blast told The Associated Press. Most of the school’s students are boys. said the resident on condition of anonymity for his own safety.
A video circulated by the Taliban to the media showed the blast site, a hall with dead bodies and bloodstains on the floor, littered with debris, mats and shoes. Sirens are heard in the background and some armed men walk through the hall investigating the aftermath of the explosion. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Thakor said many students were injured in the attack. Samangan province is predominantly Uzbek.
There was no direct assumption of responsibility. But the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group has waged an escalating campaign of violence since the Taliban took power in August 2021.
IS has targeted not only Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim minority but also Sunni mosques and madrassas, especially those with Taliban ties. The Taliban and the Islamic State group both hold uncompromising ideologies, but are fierce rivals.
