An explosion on Friday near a gate to the campus of Kabul University in the Afghan capital killed eight people and injured at least 27 as students waited to take an examination, officials said.
Afghan security forces are facing almost daily attacks by Taliban militants, despite reported progress in efforts by the United States to broker an end to Afghanistan's nearly 18-year war.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's blast just hours after Taliban militants set off two car bombs outside police headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least 12 and wounding more than 80.
Health ministry spokesman Wahid Mayar said there were students among the 27 injured taken to hospital after the blast, which a student at the university campus said took place while a number of students waited to appear for an exam.
An eyewitness and an interior ministry official said a vehicle caught fire after the explosion caused by a sticky bomb, a common threat in Kabul, where insurgents often stick explosives under vehicles.
A police team defused a second bomb placed near the explosion site, Kabul police spokesman Faramarz Firdaws said. The early morning blast also set two vehicles ablaze although it wasn’t clear if the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber or a remotely detonated bomb, said Kabul police spokesman Ferdous Faramarz.
The casualty tolls were released by the Health Ministry spokesman, Dr. Wahidullah Mayar, who tweeted that “6 people have been martyred & 27 more wounded, as a result of today’s explosion in Kabul. All the wounded patients were evacuated to our hospitals and have been receiving the required treatment.”
The university compound houses several hostels where many students stay over the summer, attending classes and conducting research. The university is co-educational.
Though Friday is the start of the weekend in Afghanistan, Massoud, an economics professor at the university who like many Afghans uses only one name, said that several lawyers were taking their exams to become judges when the explosion occurred.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the lawyers were the target. In recent months, at least two professors at Kabul University with alleged links to Afghanistan’s Daesh affiliate have been arrested, and last year the wall that surrounds the university was emblazoned with graffiti reading, “Long Live Daesh,” the Arabic name for the Daesh group.
A US Department of Defense intelligence official told The Associated Press that the Daesh affiliate has stepped up efforts to recruit students from Kabul’s universities, particularly those who are tech savvy, to expand the group’s strength and reach. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he was not aware of Taliban involvement in Friday’s attack.
In a 2016 attack, 13 people were killed, mostly students, and more than 40 people were wounded when militants attacked the American University in Kabul. In that attack, a car bomb exploded outside the university gates, followed by a blistering, hours-long attack in which gunmen roamed through the compound shooting at students and teachers.
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