Maternity ward massacre shakes Afghanistan and its peace process

Newborn children who lost their mothers during the yesterday's attack lie on a bed at a hospital, in Kabul, Afghanistan May 13, 2020.

After struggling to get pregnant for years, Zainab, 27, gave birth to a baby boy on Tuesday morning at a small hospital in the southwestern corner of Kabul. She was overjoyed and named the boy Omid, meaning ‘hope’ in Dari.

At around 10 a.m. (0530 GMT), an hour before she and her family were set to return home to neighbouring Bamiyan province a three-hour drive away, three gunmen disguised as police burst into the hospital’s maternity ward and started shooting.