(Bloomberg) -- At least 37 people including newborn babies were killed and 85 others wounded on Tuesday in two separate attacks on a public hospital and funeral ceremony in war-hit Afghanistan.
Armed militants attacked a hospital in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Kabul killing 13, including women and infants, Tariq Arian, a spokesman from the country’s interior ministry, said on Twitter. Another 15 were wounded in that attack, he said.
The three assailants began shooting inside the maternity ward, Arian said earlier by phone. The ward is run with the support of the international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières. All the gunmen were killed after a five-hour-long gun battle with Afghan forces, Arian added.
A separate attack on a funeral ceremony in eastern Nangarhar province killed at least 24 people and wounded about 70 others, provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said over the phone. The death toll could rise as the condition of some of the wounded was “quite critical,” he added.
No group has taken responsibility for the attacks. Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, denied involvement in the hospital attack via Twitter. The Islamic State group has repeatedly targeted Shiite people in the same region.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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