Mortar shell kills 4 school children in Afghanistan

By Shadi Khan Saif</p> <p>KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) – At least four students were killed in Afghanistan as a mortar shell hit their school in restive Ghazni province, an official statement said on Saturday.</p> <p>According to the statement issued by the provincial administration, a boys’ high school in the Andar district was hit by a mortar shell from unknown direction killing four students and injuring 13 others.</p> <p>It noted fighting was underway between the security forces and the Taliban in the area when this incident took place.</p> <p>This came a week after 13 civilians, including 10 children, were killed in an airstrike by foreign troops in the northern Kunduz province.</p> <p>“An airstrike conducted by international military forces on the night of Friday to Saturday (Mar. 22 and Mar. 23) in Kunduz in support of pro-Government forces on the ground killed 13 civilians and injured three more,” UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement on Monday, Mar. 25.</p> <p>A pattern of mounting civilian casualties in the raging Afghan conflict has caused grim concerns. Carrying dead bodies, residents of Kunduz held a protest demonstration last week against the deadly airstrikes in the country.</p> <p>With the record 3,804 civilians, including 927 children, killed in this conflict in 2018 — a clear indicator of intensification of violence — the UN last month called for urgent need to seize opportunities for peace in Afghanistan.