International media outlets report that a suicide bomber struck a private education center in a Shia neighborhood in Kabul on Wednesday where high school graduates were preparing for university entrance exams, killing 48 young people and wounding 67 others.
The attack comes amid a particularly bloody week in Afghanistan that has seen Taliban attacks kill scores of Afghan troops and civilians.
It was not immediately clear how the bomber managed to sneak into the building, used by the Shia community as an education center, in the Dasht-i Barcha area of Kabul.
The bombing, blamed on ISIS, was the latest assault on Afghanistan's Shia community, which has increasingly been targeted by Sunni extremists who consider Shias to be heretics.
The UN Security Council (UNSC) yesterday condemned the attack calling it a "heinous and cowardly terrorist attack."
In a press statement, the council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
The UNSC underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice and urged all states to cooperate with the Afghan and all other relevant authorities in this regard.
Members of the council expressed sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the government of Afghanistan and wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.
Earlier Wednesday, UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak called the suicide attack “unacceptable,” adding that the General Assembly continues to stand against terrorism and with Afghanistan.
He said many of the victims were young people preparing for university entrance exams, noting pursuing an education should not be risk to one's life.
TOLONews reports that according to the statistical data from the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), over 10,000 Afghan civilians were killed and wounded in attacks across the country last solar year, including 2,000 children.
