Death Toll Rises to 50 from Blasts Near Afghan Girls School

The attack on a girls' school in Kabul was the deadliest in more than a year ZAKERIA HASHIMI AFP
The attack on a girls' school in Kabul was the deadliest in more than a year ZAKERIA HASHIMI AFP
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Death Toll Rises to 50 from Blasts Near Afghan Girls School

The attack on a girls' school in Kabul was the deadliest in more than a year ZAKERIA HASHIMI AFP
The attack on a girls' school in Kabul was the deadliest in more than a year ZAKERIA HASHIMI AFP

The death toll from bombs planted outside a girls' school in an area of the Afghan capital rose to 50 Sunday as the Taliban denied government accusations that they were behind the bloody attack.

The Saturday's blasts -- the deadliest in more than a year -- rocked the west Kabul district of Dasht-e-Barchi.

It comes as the United States military continues to pull out its last 2,500 troops from the violence-wracked country despite faltering peace efforts between the Taliban and Afghan government to end a decades-long war, AFP reported.

Describing Saturday's carnage, Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told reporters that a car bomb first detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada School, and when the students rushed out in panic two more devices exploded.

He said more than 100 people were wounded, adding that most of the victims were female students.

Residents were out shopping ahead of this week's Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

On Sunday relatives began burying the dead at a hilltop site known as "Martyrs Cemetery".

No group has so far claimed the attack, but Afghan officials including President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban.

"This savage group does not have the power to confront security forces on the battlefield, and instead targets with brutality and barbarism public facilities and the girls' school," Ghani said in a statement after the blasts.

The insurgents have denied involvement and insist they have not carried out attacks in Kabul since February last year, when they signed a deal with the United States that paved the way for peace talks and withdrawal of the remaining US troops.

But the group has clashed in near-daily battles with Afghan forces in the rugged countryside even as the US military reduces its presence.

The United States was supposed to have pulled all forces out by May 1 under a deal struck with the Taliban last year, but Washington pushed back the date to September 11 -- a move that angered the insurgents.

The top US diplomat in Kabul, Ross Wilson, called Saturday's blasts "abhorrent".

"This unforgivable attack on children is an assault on Afghanistan's future, which cannot stand," Wilson said on Twitter.

In May last year, a group of gunmen attacked a hospital in the area in a brazen daylight raid that left 25 people dead, including 16 mothers of newborn babies.

On October 24, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a tuition center in the same district, killing 18 people in an attack that also went unclaimed.



Trump Administration to Cancel Student Visas of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
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Trump Administration to Cancel Student Visas of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.

A fact sheet on the order promises "immediate action" by the Justice Department to prosecute "terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews" and marshal all federal resources to combat what it called "the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets" since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

"To all the resident aliens who joined in the protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," Trump said in the fact sheet.

"I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses, with civil rights groups documenting rising antisemitic, anti-Arab and Islamophobic incidents.

The order will require agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism, and would demand "the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws."

The fact sheet said protesters engaged in pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, blocked Jewish students from attending classes and assaulted worshippers at synagogues, as well as vandalizing US monuments and statues.

Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in antisemitic acts, and said they were demonstrating against Israel's military assault on Gaza, where health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, accused the Trump administration of an assault on "free speech and Palestinian humanity under the guise of combating antisemitism," and described Wednesday's order as "dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable."

During his 2024 election campaign, Trump promised to deport those he called "pro-Hamas" students in the United States on visas.

On his first day in office, he signed an executive order that rights groups say lays the groundwork for the reinstatement of a ban on travelers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries, and offers wider authorities to use ideological exclusion to deny visa requests and remove individuals already in the country.