A bomb blast in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday killed a security guard and wounded a group of journalists, as well as several children, police and a witness said.
The blast came two days after a suicide bomber killed the Taliban governor of northern Balkh Province in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
The attack on Mohammed Dawood Muzammil in the Balkh provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif, on Thursday marked the killing of one of the highest-ranking officials since the Taliban stormed back to power in 2021.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Yesterday’s blast occurred during an event honoring Afghanistan’s media at a cultural center in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Police said that a security guard was killed and that five journalists were among the wounded.
“I heard a big bang... then there was chaos as everyone was trying to find a way to escape,” said Afghan journalist Atif Arian, who was wounded in the blast.
“Some journalists are seriously wounded,” he said.
Balkh police spokesman Mohammed Asif Waziri said three children were also among the wounded.
Arian said the explosion happened when a group of children were singing an anthem, minutes after a Taliban official had delivered a speech.
Afghan journalists were regularly targeted before the Taliban reclaimed power, with several attacks claimed by Islamic State.
Muzammil was killed by an Islamic State suicide bomber minutes after he arrived at his office in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Violence across Afghanistan has fallen since the Taliban seized control, but security has deteriorated again, with Islamic State claiming several deadly attacks.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS