Daily US Times: Afghan officials have confirmed that at least 18 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bombing attack outside an education centre in the capital Kabul.
The interior minister said the explosion at the private facility in the predominantly Shia Muslim Dasht-e-Barchi area, which offers courses for students in higher education, occurred late in the afternoon.
The building usually hosts hundreds of students.
Many have been taken to hospital and there are fears the death toll may rise.
The Islamic State (IS) group confirmed they were behind the bombing in messages posted on its social media channels but did not provide any evidence.
The Taliban denied involvement in the attack.
Tariq Arian, an interior ministry spokesman. said in a statement: “A suicide bomber wanted to enter the education centre.”
The attacker was identified by security guards “after which he detonated his explosives in an alley”, the spokesman added.
One local resident, Ali Reza, told AFP news agency that those killed and injured were students waiting to enter the facility.
The resident said: “I was standing about 100m from the centre when a big blast knocked me down.”
In recent weeks, Afghanistan has seen a rise in violence – with most of the attacks carried out by the Taliban. The recent growing violence threatens to imperil peace talks between the government and the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The Sunni Muslim extremists such as the Islamic State group, which views the Shia practice of Islam as heretical, has previously attacked Shia community in Afghanistan.
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