The United States has called on Afghanistan to carry out a thorough investigation into a spate of mysterious poisonings harming Afghan school girls, AP reported.
The poisonings "obviously concern us very much," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters on Wednesday.
"I understand that the Afghan authorities are also taking these ... incidents very seriously, and are investigating them."
He added: "We urge the Afghan authorities to ... conduct a thorough investigation of it.
Kelly said that a US Provincial Reconstruction Team -- where civilian experts backed by troops work to rebuild rural parts of Afghanistan -- was in the area of the poisonings and are following the case "very closely."
Afghan officails said another 98 Afghan girls in Mahmud Raqi, capital of Kapisa province, were rushed to hospital Tuesday in the latest in a spate of mysterious poisonings to hit three schools north of Kabul in a fortnight.
A doctor dealing with the case said that the school had apparently been filled with gas overnight, and that radical Islamist insurgent groups opposed to the education of girls could be responsible.
It follows a similar incident on Monday about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) away in the town of Charikar where 61 schoolgirls and one of their teachers were treated in hospital, apparently also after inhaling some form of gas.
Late April around 40 other girls were treated in a different school in Charikar with similar symptoms.
The Taliban and other radical Islamic factions who also oppose the education of girls are waging an insurgency against the new administration that has seen several attacks on boys and girls schools.
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