Dead and wounded in an explosion targeting a passenger bus in southern Afghanistan

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Afghanistan quoted a government source as saying that 25 people were killed and 16 others were injured in the explosion of an explosive device that targeted a passenger bus late Monday night on the highway between the states of Zabul and Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

The attack, which no party immediately claimed responsibility for, comes one day after a deadly IED attack targeting a girls’ school in the west of the capital, killing more than 50 people, the vast majority of them schoolgirls.

Likewise, no party has claimed responsibility for the attack that targeted the school, which also left more than 100 wounded, but Afghan officials, led by President Ashraf Ghani, accused the Taliban of standing behind him, which the movement strongly denied.

The bombing of the passenger bus came while the Taliban announced on Sunday evening a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan during Eid al-Fitr.

In turn, Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani declared public mourning across the country tomorrow, Tuesday, against the backdrop of the bloody attacks on students in Luger and the capital, Kabul.

And Ghani said in a pictorial speech that the Taliban will not be able to reach their goals through war, as he put it.

The country has witnessed a sharp increase in violence for weeks after the United States announced the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan by September 11, after the withdrawal was scheduled for May 1.