Taliban guerrillas attacked a high school in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing a guard and a male teenage student, a witness said. Two attackers arrived at the school in Lashkargah, the capital of the troubled southern province of Helmand, just before noon, said the witness, Sargar Mohammad.
"They shot the watchman and opened fire on some teachers but didn't hit any, but they shot dead an 18-year-old student," Mohammad said. They then went out firing into the air and called on people to obey their orders to shut down schools, saying they would be killed if they did not.
Helmand police chief Abdul Rahman Sabir confirmed that Taleban gunmen had killed two people in their latest attack on a school.
On Thursday, suspected Taleban guerrillas dragged a teacher from a classroom of teenagers in another district of Helmand and executed him at the school gate after he ignored their orders to stop teaching girls, police said.
President Hamid Karzai called the killing of the teacher a "heinous act of terrorism". "I condemn it in the strongest terms," he said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that their evil acts won't close doors on schools in our country."