Car Bomb Kills 68, Injures 165 Outside Kabul Girls’ School

At least 68 people, most schoolgirls, were killed and  165 injured on Saturday in an attack outside a girls’ high school in a suburb of the Afghan capital, Kabul. The attack was carried out in stages to maximize the death toll, beginning with a car-bombing attack that sent the children running into the street, followed by at least two more bombs. President Ashraf Ghani said Taliban insurgents were responsible for the attack – a charge that the Islamist group denies. The school is located in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, whose residents are predominantly Hazara Shiites, a group that has been targeted by the Sunni-extremist Taliban. The violence comes against the backdrop of a pullout by US and allied troops, which is set to be completed by September 11.