School blast kills nine children and adult
An explosion ripped through a school in south-eastern Afghanistan, killing nine children and one adult, the United States military said today.
An Afghan official said the blast on Saturday evening in Paktia province was caused by a bomb, though the military said it was still unclear.
“There was an explosion, that’s all we know,” American spokeswoman Master Sgt. Ann Bennett said. “Killed were four children, five teenagers and one adult.”
An eight-year-old boy injured in the blast was taken to an American military base for treatment, Bennett said.
Paktia governor Asadullah Wafa said eight children aged seven to 15 were killed and 15 other people injured, three of them critically. It was not clear if two had subsequently died of their wounds.
The military initially reported that about 30 children and two adults were wounded. Bennett said the toll was revised after reports from US medical teams sent to help.
The American military said it was helping local authorities investigate the explosion, which Bennett said occurred as the children were attending an evening class.
Wafa said the explosion was caused by a bomb planted by “puppets listening to their bosses outside the country” – a remark taken to be aimed at Pakistan. He didn’t elaborate.
The Mullah Khel school near Zormat, about 80 miles south of the capital, Kabul, was an Islamic school which also taught the more modern syllabus set by the Afghan Education Ministry.
It received funding from an international aid group, Wafa said, something that could conceivably have made it a target for Taliban-led militants.
Civilians have often been among the victims of violence between rebels and Afghan and US forces across the south and east of Afghanistan.
