Attack on cultural centre in Afghan capital kills dozens

Suicide bombers stormed a Shiacultural centre and news agency on Thursdayin the Afghan capital onThursday, killing dozens of people and wounding scores, manyof them students attending a conference.

ISIS said in an online statement that it wasresponsible for the attack, the latest in a series the movementhas claimed on Shia targets in Kabul, saying the centrereceived support from Iran

Waheed Majrooh, a spokespersonfor the Ministry of Public Health, said 41 people, including four women and two children,had been killed and 84 wounded. Most had serious burns.

• 'People crying and screaming': Afghan journalist describes chaos, carnage of Kabul suicide attack

The attack occurred during a morning panel discussion on theanniversary of the Soviet invasion of Sunni-majority Afghanistanat the Tabian Social and Cultural Centre, witnesses said.

The floorof the centre, at the basement level, was covered in blood as wailing survivors and relatives picked through the debris,while windows of the news agency, on thesecond floor, were all shattered.

"We were shocked and didn't feel the explosion at first,butwe saw smoke coming up from below," said Ali Reza Ahmadi, ajournalist at the agency who was sitting in his office above thecentre when the attack took place.

"Survivors were coming out. I saw one boy with cuts to hisfeet and others with burns all over their faces," he said."About 10 minutes after the first explosion, there was anotherone outside on the street and then another one."

Video journalist RatebNooriwas also in his office and said he rushed to the scene, where he witnessed one of the blasts and people trying to flee the area.

"There was a woman and a man, and the man was trying to kind of helpthe woman to come out of that place.... She was quite scared and panicked, of course,"he told CBC Radio's As It Happens on Thursday.

When the dust cleared, he turned his camera back to where the couple were, but they were gone.

"I couldn't see those people anymore," he said. "The explosion exactly happened in front of them."

'Unpardonable crimeagainst humanity'

Deputy Health MinisterFedaMohammadPaikansaid 35 bodieshad been brought into the nearbyIstiqlalhospital. Televisionpictures showed many of the injured suffered serious burns.

"There was a reading and an academic discussion, and thenthere was a huge bang," saidSayedJan, a participant in theconference, from his bed in the hospital.

"I felt my face burning and I fell down and saw othercolleagues lying around me and smoke everywhere."

The bloodshed followed an attack on a private televisionstation in Kabul last month that was also claimed by the localaffiliate of the Islamic State.

Afghan PresidentAshrafGhani'sspokespersonissued a statement calling the attack an "unpardonablecrime against humanity" and pledging to destroy terrorist groups.

Taliban spokespersonZabihullah Mujahid issued a statement onTwitter denying involvement in the attack, which was also condemnedby Afghanistan's internationalpartners including NATO and the United Nations.

"I have little doubt that this attack deliberately targetedcivilians," said Toby Lanzer, acting head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"Today in Kabul we have witnessed another truly despicablecrime in a year already marked by unspeakable atrocities."

Fortified zone

Prior to Thursday's attack, there had been at least 12attacks on Shiatargets since the start of 2016, in whichalmost 700 people were killed or wounded, according to UN figures. Before that, there had only been one major attack, in 2011.

Backed by the heaviest U.S.airstrikessince the height of the international combat mission in Afghanistan, Afghan forces have forced the Taliban back in many areas and prevented any major urban centre from falling into the hands of insurgents.

But high-profile attacks in the big cities have continued asmilitants have looked for other ways to make an impact and
undermine confidence in security.

The attacks have increased pressure on Ghani'sWestern-backed government to improve security. Much of the centre of Kabul is already a fortified zone of concrete blastwalls and police checkpoints, following repeated attacks on the diplomatic quarter of the city.

But militant groups have also hit numerous targets outsidethe protected zone, many in the western part of the city, home to many members of the mainly Shia Hazara community.

ISIS, which is opposed to both the Taliban and the Western-backed government, has claimed a growing share of such attacks.

"This gruesome attack underscores the dangers faced by Afghan civilians," rights group Amnesty International said in a statement from its South Asia director, Biraj Patnaik. "In one of the deadliest years on record, journalists and other civilians continue to be ruthlessly targeted by armed groups."

According to a report this month by media freedom group Reporters without Borders, Afghanistan is among the world's most dangerous countries for media workers with two journalists and five media assistants killed doing their jobs in 2017, before Thursday's attack.

According to Sayed Abbas Hussaini, a journalist at Afghan Voice, one reporter at the agency was killed in Thursday's attack and two were wounded.