Blasts Near Kabul Schools Kill at Least 6 Civilians, Hurt 11

Medical staff move a wounded youth on a stretcher inside a hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan, April 19, 2022. (AFP)
Medical staff move a wounded youth on a stretcher inside a hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan, April 19, 2022. (AFP)
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Blasts Near Kabul Schools Kill at Least 6 Civilians, Hurt 11

Medical staff move a wounded youth on a stretcher inside a hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan, April 19, 2022. (AFP)
Medical staff move a wounded youth on a stretcher inside a hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan, April 19, 2022. (AFP)

Explosions targeting educational institutions killed at least six people, including students, and injured 11 Tuesday in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of Afghanistan's capital city, police said.

The blasts, which occurred in rapid succession, were being investigated and more casualties were feared, according to Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran and the city's Emergency Hospital. Several of the wounded were in critical condition.

The explosions occurred inside the Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School and near the Mumtaz Education Center several kilometers (miles) away, both in the predominately Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. There were no immediate reports of casualties at the Mumtaz Center.

Guards in the narrow street leading to the two-story high school said they saw 10 casualties. Inside the school, an Associated Press video journalist saw walls splattered with blood, burned notebooks and children's shoes.

The AP spoke to several private guards in the area but they refused to give their names, fearing repercussions from the Taliban security force cordoning off the area.

It appeared a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the sprawling compound, which can house up to 1,000 students, witnesses said. It wasn't immediately clear how many children were in the school at the time of the explosion.

The school is teaching students only until the sixth grade after Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers went back on a promise to allow all girls to attend school.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility. The area has been targeted in the past by Afghanistan’s deadly ISIS affiliate.



Chinese Navy Survey Ship Entered Japanese Waters, Japan's Defense Ministry Says

A Chinese naval Z-9 helicopter prepares to land aboard the People's Liberation Army (Navy) frigate CNS Huangshan (FFG-570) as the ship conducts a series of maneuvers and exchanges with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) in the South China Sea June 16, 2017/Reuters
A Chinese naval Z-9 helicopter prepares to land aboard the People's Liberation Army (Navy) frigate CNS Huangshan (FFG-570) as the ship conducts a series of maneuvers and exchanges with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) in the South China Sea June 16, 2017/Reuters
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Chinese Navy Survey Ship Entered Japanese Waters, Japan's Defense Ministry Says

A Chinese naval Z-9 helicopter prepares to land aboard the People's Liberation Army (Navy) frigate CNS Huangshan (FFG-570) as the ship conducts a series of maneuvers and exchanges with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) in the South China Sea June 16, 2017/Reuters
A Chinese naval Z-9 helicopter prepares to land aboard the People's Liberation Army (Navy) frigate CNS Huangshan (FFG-570) as the ship conducts a series of maneuvers and exchanges with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) in the South China Sea June 16, 2017/Reuters

A Chinese Navy survey vessel briefly entered Japanese territorial waters on Saturday, Japan's defence ministry said.

The ship was detected in Japanese territory off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, in the southwest of the country, at around 6 a.m. local time (2100 GMT Friday), and had departed by 7:53 a.m., the ministry said on its website, Reuters reported.

This is the tenth time over the past year that a Chinese Navy survey ship has sailed through Japan's territorial waters, and the 13th time if submarines and intelligence-gathering vessels are included, according to national broadcaster NHK.