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.



King Charles Calls for More Compassion in Christmas Speech

Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights
Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights
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King Charles Calls for More Compassion in Christmas Speech

Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights
Britain's King Charles, along with members of the royal family, arrives to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKayg Rights

Britain's King Charles III called for "compassion and reconciliation" at a time of "division" across the world in his annual Christmas Day message broadcast on Thursday.

The 77-year-old monarch said he found it "enormously encouraging" how people of different faiths had a "shared longing for peace".

In the year of the 80th anniversary of end of World War II, the king said the courage of servicemen and women and the way communities came together back then carried "a timeless message for us all".

"As we hear of division both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight," Charles said in a pre-recorded message from Westminster Abbey, broadcast on British television at 1500 GMT.

"With the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong. It seems to me that we need to cherish the values of compassion and reconciliation the way our Lord lived and died."

In October, Charles became the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a pope since the schism with Rome 500 years ago, in a service led by Leo XIV at the Vatican.

A few days earlier Charles met survivors of a deadly attack on a synagogue and members of the Jewish community in the northern English city of Manchester.

This is the second time in succession that the king has made his festive address from outside a royal residence.

Last year he spoke from a former hospital chapel as he thanked medical staff for supporting the royal family in a year in which he announced his cancer diagnosis.


Israel Says Member of Elite Iran Unit Killed in Lebanon Strike

A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
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Israel Says Member of Elite Iran Unit Killed in Lebanon Strike

A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER

The Israeli military said on Thursday that its forces killed a member of ​Iran's Quds Force in Lebanon who had been involved in planning attacks from Syria and Lebanon.
The military identified the man as Hussein Mahmoud Marshad al-Jawhari, calling him a key operative in ‌the force's ‌unit 840.

He was ‌assassinated ⁠in ​the ‌area or Ansariyeh, the military added in a statement, without giving any further details of his death, Reuters reported.

Al-Jawhari "operated under the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was involved in terror activities, ⁠directed by Iran, against the State of ‌Israel and its security ‍forces," the statement said.

Israel ‍and Iran fought a brief ‍war in June and the Israeli military has been carrying out strikes in Lebanon on a near-daily basis, in ​what it says is an effort to stop Iranian-backed Lebanese ⁠group Hezbollah from rebuilding.

A US-backed ceasefire agreed in November 2024 ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and required the disarmament of the powerful armed group, beginning in areas south of the river adjacent to Israel.

 

 


Coastguard Rescue 52 Migrants off Greece, Boy Missing

A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
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Coastguard Rescue 52 Migrants off Greece, Boy Missing

A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture

Greek coastguard were searching Thursday for a missing child off the island of Farmakonisi after rescuing 52 migrants in two separate incidents in the Aegean Sea, local media reported.

They found 13 migrants who had arrived on the small, uninhabited island, but one boy was reported missing from the group, said the ANA news agency, AFP reported.

Another 39 migrants were found on board an inflatable boat off the southern island of Crete, according to the same source. They were taken to the village of Kaloi Limenes in Crete. No details about their nationality were provided.

Two coastguard vessels and an airforce helicopter were deployed for the operation off Farmakonisi, opposite the Turkish coast.

Many migrants try to reach the Greek islands from Türkiye or Libya as a way of entering the European Union. But both crossings are perilous.

Earlier this month, 17 people were found dead in a migrant boat drifting off Crete. Another 15 people were reported missing.

The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year -- more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.