A suicide attack claimed by the Islamic State group near Afghanistan’s foreign ministry on Monday killed six civilians and wounded several others, the Afghan Ministry of the Interior said.
Security has dramatically improved since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government and ending their two decades in the country, but the Islamic State has proved an increasing threat.
Afghan forces identified the attacker and shot at him in front of a business center near the foreign ministry, Ministry of the Interior spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor wrote on Twitter.
Photo: AP
“With his killing, the explosives carried by the attacker also exploded which killed six civilians and wounded a number of others,” he said.
The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Amaq, the group’s news arm.
Italian non-governmental organization Emergency, which operates a hospital in the capital, said that it had received two bodies and 12 wounded people, including a child.
Monday’s blast was the second attack near the foreign ministry in Kabul in less than three months, and the first since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on Thursday last week in Afghanistan.
On Jan. 11, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the foreign ministry, killing 10 people and wounding 53, UN data showed.
The Taliban, which has often tried to play down attacks challenging its rule, had said that five people were killed in that attack, which was also claimed by the Islamic State group.
The group has increasingly become a major challenge, killing and wounding hundreds of people in several attacks, some targeting foreigners or foreign interests in a bid to undermine the Taliban government.
At least five Chinese nationals were wounded in December last year when gunmen stormed a hotel popular with businesspeople in Kabul.
That raid was claimed by the Islamic State group, as was an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul in the same month.
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