Afghan civilians have experienced ‘a horrible taste of what they can expect’

Sky News host Chris Kenny has assessed “horrific” and “gut-wrenching” news after recent bomb attacks killed dozens of people, most of which were young schoolgirls, near Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul. At least 68 people were killed, and dozens of others left wounded after three bombs were detonated outside a school in western Kabul. “Whoever it was, and whatever the intent, yet again senseless slaughter, this time directed at the young, and the blameless,” Mr Kenny said. Mr Kenny said, yet again, the attacks have shown that, “at the core of the Islamist extremist ideology is a hatred of female empowerment, particularly the education of girls and young women”. “And the fact that the attack comes only a week after allied forces began a staged withdrawal is just a horrible taste of what civilians can expect in four months' time," he said. “The presence of the allies has been a stabilising factor, shoring up the vulnerable Afghan government, and holding the fragile line between order and anarchy. “As I said last month, the downside of exiting the country now could well be that all of the gains are squandered, not just for the West, not just for holding a strategic line, but for the people of Afghanistan, and especially the girls whose only threat to the world around them is that they would like to go to school”.