KABUL: A series of explosions at a high school and educational center in Kabul on Tuesday killed at least six people and injured many more, including students, police and health authorities said.
Two blasts occurred at the Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School in the capital’s western neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. A nearby tuition center was also targeted in a grenade attack.
“According to initial figures, six of our compatriots were martyred,” Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said in a statement. “An investigation has been launched into the attack.”
The Ministry of Public Health said at least 20 people were injured.
Abdul Naser, an eyewitness, said the victims were mostly students.
“There was smoke all over the area following the blasts,” he told Arab News. “All casualties were young boys in their teens. We were all so scared.”
The city’s Emergency Hospital, which received some of the wounded, told the media all of them were between the ages of 16 and 19.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the apparent attack and it is possible the death toll could rise.
In May 2021, there was a bombing at the Sayed Al-Shuhada girls’ school in the same area of the Afghan capital, which is home to a large Shiite Hazara community.
The attack killed at least 85 people, mostly teenage girls, as the students were leaving classes to break their Ramadan fast.
At least 6 dead after explosions hit Kabul schools
https://arab.news/jtvaj
At least 6 dead after explosions hit Kabul schools
- Two blasts occurred at a high school in the Afghan capital’s Shiite-dominated neighborhood
- A nearby tuition center was also targeted in a grenade attack
Over 1,400 Indonesians left Cambodian scam groups in five days: embassy
- Scammers working from hubs across Southeast Asia lure Internet users globally into fake romances and cryptocurrency investments
- Some foreign nationals have evacuated suspected scam compounds across Cambodia this month
PHNOM PENH: More than 1,400 Indonesians have left cyberscam networks in Cambodia in the last five days, Jakarta said on Wednesday, after Phnom Penh pledged a fresh crackdown on the illicit trade.
Scammers working from hubs across Southeast Asia, some willingly and others trafficked, lure Internet users globally into fake romances and cryptocurrency investments, netting tens of billions of dollars each year.
Some foreign nationals have evacuated suspected scam compounds across Cambodia this month as the government pledged to “eliminate” problems related to the online fraud industry, which the United Nations says employs at least 100,000 people in Cambodia alone.
Between January 16-20, 1,440 Indonesians left sites operated by online scam syndicates around Cambodia and went to the Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh for help, the mission said in a statement.
The “largest wave of arrivals” occurred on Monday when 520 Indonesians came to the embassy, it said.
Recent Cambodian law enforcement measures against scam operators meant more citizens would likely continue showing up at the embassy, it added.
“The main problem for them is that they do not possess passports and they are staying in Cambodia without valid immigration permits,” according to the embassy.
It urged Indonesians leaving scam sites to report to the embassy, which could assist them with securing travel documents and overstay fine waivers in order to return home.
Indonesia said this week that its embassy in Phnom Penh handled more than 5,000 consular service cases for citizens in Cambodia last year — more than 80 percent of which were related to Indonesians who “admitted to being involved with online scam syndicates.”
Cambodia arrested and deported Chinese-born tycoon Chen Zhi, accused of running Internet scam operations from Cambodia, to China this month.
Chen, a former adviser to Cambodia’s leaders, was indicted by US authorities in October.
Analysts say Chen’s extradition has left some of those running Internet scams from Cambodia fearing legal consequences — after the criminal enterprises ballooned for years — with some operators opting to release people or evacuate their compounds.
