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Deadly suicide blast targets Shia area in Afghan capital

At least 25 people have died after an explosion rocked a building where students were taking university entrance exams.

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An injured man

The death toll from a suicide bombing that targeted a Shia area in Kabul has risen to 25, officials said.

An Afghan interior ministry spokesman, Najib Danish, said at least 35 people were also wounded in the attack, and warned that the toll could rise.

Afghan officials say the bomber targeted a private building in the Shia area of Dasht-i Barcha, where a group of young men and women, all high school graduates, were studying for university entrance exams.

The explosion initially set off gunfire from Afghan guards in the area, leading to assumptions that there were more attackers, but it is thought that only one bomber was involved.

Jawad Ghawari, a member of the city’s Shia clerical council, blamed Islamic State (IS) for the attack, which carried all the hallmarks of past assaults on Shia mosques, schools and cultural centres.

Mr Ghawari said that in past two years, there were at least 13 attacks on the Shia community in Kabul alone.

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