Multiple explosions hit near school in Afghan capital Kabul

Multiple explosions hit near school in Afghan capital Kabul

The blasts struck near Afghan educational institutions in Kabul Tuesday, killing¹ at least six people and wounding more. It's the latest in a country that's been wracked by decades of violence.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Multiple blasts struck near educational institutions in Kabul yesterday, killing at least six people and wounding many more. In a country wracked by decades of violence, these attacks appeared to target ethnic² Hazaras. On the line is NPR correspondent Diaa Hadid. She covers Afghanistan from her base in neighboring Pakistan. Good morning, Diaa.

DIAA HADID, BYLINE³: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So, Diaa, what can you tell us about these bombings in Kabul?

HADID: Right. So it seems to be three bombs that targeted schools and an educational institution in Kabul early Tuesday. At least, as you noted⁴, six people were killed, but there could be more. The Taliban prevented journalists from reaching the area. And the impact, says Heather Barr from Human Rights Watch, is far bigger than one tragic⁵ incident.

HEATHER BARR: One bombing can make families feel like they have to choose between believing that their children will be safe and sending their children to get an education. And it's not difficult to understand that some families feel like they have to choose safety. But every time they're forced to make that choice, it undermines any hope for Afghanistan to have a peaceful and prosperous future.

HADID: Now, remember; this is in addition to the Taliban banning girls from attending secondary school. That was imposed when they swept to power in August last year. It's now been eight months. The Taliban said life would be better with them in charge, but Afghans are experiencing even more hardship than before.

FADEL: Has anyone claimed responsibility for the bombings?

HADID: So far, no. But the schools are in an area called Dashte Barchi. As you noted, it's an area dominated by ethnic Hazaras. They're mainly Shiite Muslims, and ISIS has targeted them and battered⁶ this area in the past. But some of the worst attacks have been unclaimed, including this time last year when militants⁷ struck a secondary school, and they killed around 85 schoolgirls. Yeah, and in 2020, militants stormed a maternity⁸ hospital in Dashte Barchi. They killed more than 20 people, including birthing and pregnant women. And so this could be just about targeting Hazaras.

FADEL: And it's a religious and ethnic minority that seems to be persecuted⁹ regardless of who's in power. But beyond this terrible attack, across Afghanistan there's a growing humanitarian¹⁰ crisis endangering lives in a different way. How is that being felt by ordinary Afghans?

HADID: Yeah, this is being felt by Afghans as a hunger crisis. The U.N. estimates that 93% of all Afghans don't get enough food to eat. Somewhere around half of them need aid to survive. So I just want to go back to something - 93% of all Afghans is somewhere north of 35 million people.

FADEL: Wow.

HADID: This is not a small number. Tens of thousands of children, the U.N. says, are starving.

FADEL: How have international aid groups responded to the crisis?

HADID: Well, they're trying. The United Nations raised more than $2 billion to help Afghans through this year. That's making a difference in terms of the severity of the crisis. But it's just over half of what the United Nations asked for. And Heather Barr from Human Rights Watch says the international community actually helped create this crisis because it won't unfreeze the Afghan central bank assets, which are largely in the United States.

BARR: It's put Afghanistan in a position where people can't go to work, earn a salary, get paid and take their wages home and feed their family because the money isn't there to pay the wages.

HADID: And Barr says that she doesn't see this urgency getting - she doesn't see that there's much urgency by the international community to resolve this situation. And that's been made worse by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

FADEL: NPR's Diaa Hadid. Thank you for your reporting, Diaa.

HADID: Thank you, Leila.

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

6 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

7 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

8 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

9 persecuted   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• Throughout history, people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. 人们因宗教信仰而受迫害的情况贯穿了整个历史。
• Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。

10 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。