40 die in Kabul blast

40 people have been killed and over 50 wounded after a bomb went off on Saturday near a school in Kabul, according to international news agency.

The bomb exploded near a girls’ school which was situated in a majorly Shiite district of Western Kabul, killing 40 people including students between ages 11 to 15.

The images shared on social media by the locals clearly showed the heavy clouds of smoke rising above the community. 

Ambulances rushed to the scene of blast in the neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi to evacuate the wounded, the interior minister told.

No one has yet accepted the responsibility for the bomb blast. 

An extremist group has previously claimed attacks against minority Shiites in the same area, last year claiming two brutal attacks on education facilities that killed 50 people, most of them students.

Earlier, scores of militants were killed in Afghanistan's Baghlan province as government forces launched a counter-offensive to repel the attacks, a police official said on Friday.