Families bury schoolchildren of blast that killed dozens

Afghan families have been burying their children who were killed in explosions outside a secondary school in the capital, Kabul, on Saturday.

More than 60 people, mostly girls, are now known to have died in the attack that hit students as they left class.

No-one has admitted carrying out the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi, an area often hit by Sunni Islamist militants.

The Afghan government blamed Taliban militants for the attack, but the group denied involvement.

The exact target for Saturday's bloodshed is unclear. The blasts come against a backdrop of rising violence as the US looks to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by 11 September.

The neighbourhood in western Kabul where the blasts occurred is home to many from the Hazara minority community, who are of Mongolian and Central Asian descent and are mainly Shia Muslims.

Almost exactly a year ago, a maternity unit at the local hospital was attacked, leaving 24 women, children and babies dead.

Heather Barr, who works for Human Rights Watch, tweeted a series of videos and photos of what she said was the school in Kabul - including a tour of the site given by one of the students. Ms Barr said the group had filmed a documentary there in 2017.

Nobel Prize winner and activist Malala Yousafzai - who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 - posted about the "horrendous attack" on Twitter.

"My heart is with the Kabul school victims' families," she wrote.