Kabul

A suicide bombing on Saturday at an education centre in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens, officials said.

A Taliban spokesman on Twitter denied responsibility for the attack, which came at a sensitive time as teams for the insurgents and government meet in Qatar to seek a peace deal even as violence rises and the United States withdraws troops.

A Ministry of Interior spokesman, Tariq Arian, cited security guards as identifying a bomber who detonated explosives in the street outside the Kawsar-e Danish educational centre.

Health Ministry spokesman Saeed Jami said 13 bodies had been recovered and 30 injured people transported by ambulance to hospitals. Casualties could rise, he added.

The attack came in an area of west Kabul that is home to many from the Shia community, a minority in Afghanistan targeted by groups such as Islamic State in the past.

In the same area of Kabul, dozens of students died in an attack on another education centre in 2018, while in May gunmen attacked a maternity ward, killing 24, including mothers and babies.

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