At least 84 Afghan girls in Muhmud Raqi, Afghanistan have been hospitalized for severe poisoning — it’s believed to be the latest in a string of attacks on girls’ schools by the Taliban, staunch opponents of any education for women.

Each of the attacks, including the first last month in Parwan, have been from gaseous fumes or “poisonous clouds.”

The students were lining up outside their school in northeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday morning when a strange odor filled the school yard, and one girl collapsed, said the school’s principal, who was herself in a hospital bed gasping for breath as she described the event.

While the AP is reporting that this recent attack has effected 84 girls, NPR is reporting the number to be more near 89.

This news comes on the same day the Pentagon released that Gen. David D. McKiernan will be relieved from duty of commander in Afghanistan after only holding the position for less than a year. According to Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker of the NYT:

The move reflects a belief that the war in Afghanistan, waged against an increasingly strong Taliban and its supporters across a rugged, sprawling country, is growing ever more complex. Defense Department officials said General McKiernan, a respected career armor officer, had been removed primarily because he had brought too conventional an approach to the challenge.

McKiernan will be replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, a former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. He served in Afghanistan as chief of staff of military operations in 2001 and 2002 and “recently ran all commando operations in Iraq.”
takepart by checking out Help Afghan Women, which is run by the American Feminist Majority Foundation.