Schools hit as militants seek soft targets in Afghanistan

Kabul, August 16 

A suicide bomb attack on a group of teenagers studying for university exams in Kabul, which killed 34 persons and wounded 56 on Wednesday, shocked Afghanistan but it was only the latest in a series of attacks on schools which have proved an easy target for militant groups.

More than 1,000 schools across Afghanistan remain closed for security reasons and at least 86 have been destroyed by militant attacks this year alone, according to UN figures.

“Attacks on educational institutes by hardline Islamic groups are one of the most horrific issues facing our nation today,” said Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak after Wednesday’s attack on the Mawoud Academy, a private study institute in west Kabul.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast, which killed 34 persons, most of them students attending an English class.

Most of the recent attacks on schools have been outside Kabul in provinces such as Nangarhar, a stronghold of IS, whose tactics have become notorious since it first appeared in Afghanistan some four years ago.

Malikyar Hotak high school, in Nangarhar, has been attacked twice in the past few weeks. The first time, a remote-controlled bomb failed to go off, the second time, gunmen beheaded three guards and left the school’s hallway spattered with blood.

“Unfortunately, schools and educational institutions have become an easy target and a means of pressuring the government, for any group,” said Kabir Haqmal, a spokesman at the ministry of education in Kabul.

The Taliban, at one time notorious for attacking schools and forcing girls and women to stay at home, now seek to influence schools by negotiation with local education officials and say they do not oppose schooling for girls. Its rival Islamic State, however, has stepped up its attacks on schools.

Before the attack on the Malikyar school, IS, also known as Daesh, issued warnings through radio broadcasts and letters to schools that they would attack in retaliation for pressure their fighters were facing. “Daesh were saying, ‘if we are not safe in the mountains, if our children are not safe in their houses, we will not hold back from attacks on children’,” said the Malikyar school principal. —  Reuters

Intelligence service centre attacked 

Two gunmen attacked an area around a security base and training centre for intelligence service in Kabul on Thursday, holding off security forces for hours before being killed. The incident comes at a time of tension after a series of attacks across Afghanistan, including an assault on Ghazni city by the Taliban last week that killed 150 civilians.