At least 18 people have been killed and 57 wounded, including some students, in a suicide attack in Afghanistan”s capital, the interior ministry said.
The explosion struck outside an education centre in a heavily Shiite neighbourhood of western Kabul, Dasht-e-Barchi, on Saturday.
Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said that the attacker was trying to enter the centre when he was stopped by security guards.
According to Arian, the number of fatalities may rise further as family members of victims of the suicide bombing are still looking through the several hospitals in the city where the wounded have been taken.
The Islamic State militant group (IS) said on social media that it was responsible for the attack, but did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
The Taliban rejected any connection with the attack, according to AP.
An IS affiliate claimed responsibility for a similar suicide attack at an education centre in August 2018, in which 34 students were killed.
Hundreds of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan fled the country in September after a gunman loyal to IS killed 25 members of the shrinking community in an attack on their shared a place of worship in Kabul.
The US signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February, opening up a path toward withdrawing American troops from the conflict – US officials said the deal would also help refocus security efforts on fighting IS.
There has been an upsurge in violence between Taliban and Afghan forces in the country recently, even as representatives from the two warring sides begin their own peace talks in Doha to end the decades-long war in Afghanistan.
