UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned the attacks on a Kabul sports centre which killed at least 22 people, including sportsmen and two journalists who were covering the initial bombing for a local news agency.
The first of two blasts occurred when a suicide bomber detonated himself inside a gym at a wrestling event on Wednesday. A car bomb was triggered soon after as first responders attended the scene.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the attack in which around 75 people were wounded.
"This latest cynical act of terror targeting ordinary citizens of Kabul, along with first responders and journalists, is deeply shocking," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan.
In a later statement, Guterres condemned the attack and said in a statement issued through his spokesman that "every effort should be made to bring to justice those who organized this attack against civilians."
The sports centre is located in Kabul's Dasht-i-Barchi suburb, which is predominantly a Shia Muslim neighbourhood.
UNAMA has documented a pattern of attacks deliberately carried out against the minority Shias in recent years, the latest of which occurred on August 15 at an education centre.
As the Shia community prepares in coming days to commemorate Ashura
at which time millions of Shia Muslims globally mark the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson at the Battle of Karbala, "immediate and long-term security measures must be commensurate with the continued risks this community is facing," said a statement released on Thursday by the Mission.
UNAMA demanded that "the orchestrators of this campaign of systematic attacks against the Shia Muslim religious minority face justice for their crimes".
The UN mission also expressed its deep concern over the heavy price paid by the Afghan media during the years-long Afghan civil war, with the killing of journalists in Afghanistan being among the highest in the world, and extended its deep condolences to families who had lost loved ones and wished the injured a quick recovery.
"We join Afghans in expressing our revulsion at such a callous attack," Yamamoto said.
In July, UNAMA released figures highlighting the tragic toll the conflict has had on civilians, revealing that the first half of 2018 was the deadliest for Afghans since UNAMA began documenting civilian casualties in 2009.
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