Dozens Dead in Afghanistan Attacks, Including Newborns

Gunmen stormed a maternity hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, leaving more than a dozen people dead, while a bomb at a funeral in the east of the country claimed a similar number of lives – and possibly far more. The Kabul facility is operated by Doctors Without Borders. Special Forces units from Afghanistan’s military evacuated the hospital and killed three gunmen said to have been dressed as police officers. At least 14 others died in the attack, including two newborns. The hospital is described as being in a predominately Shi’ite area of the city where Sunni extremists from Islamic State have carried out several deadly strikes. In the eastern Nangarhar Province, a bomb blew up during the funeral for a top police officer, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more – although a senior official in the province said there had been at least 50 deaths, a claim that could not immediately be verified. Some reports attributed the blast to a suicide bomber. The Taliban deny they were behind the attack although the Islamist group has claimed responsibility for several other violent incidents since signing an agreement with the US to lower the level of carnage in the country in an effort to get peace talks going.