Kabul –
A bomb exploded in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh Province, Afghanistan, killed one person and five others, including a number of journalists, were injured. The ISIS group claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.
Reported by AFP, Monday (13/3/2023), the bombing on Saturday (11/3) occurred at an event honoring Afghan journalists. The attack came two days after a suicide bomber killed the Taliban governor in Balkh province in an attack also claimed by ISIS.
“The attack on the journalist was caused by a bomb package that ISIS fighters managed to place and detonate at an event held at a cultural center in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province,” ISIS said in a statement on Amaq News.
“The explosion targeted a rally held inside a Shiite center to reward several journalists working in institutions involved in the war and incitement against ISIS,” the statement added.
Police said a security guard was killed, while five journalists and three children were injured in the bomb attack.
The governor of Balkh, Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, was killed Thursday (9/3) by a suicide bomber at his office in Mazar-i-Sharif. The attack was also claimed by ISIS.
The killing of Muzammil, known for fighting ISIS jihadists, marked one of the highest-level attacks since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Violence across Afghanistan has decreased dramatically since the Taliban seized control, but the security situation has worsened again with ISIS claiming several deadly attacks.
The Taliban and ISIS share an austere Sunni Islamic ideology, but the latter is striving to establish a global caliphate instead of the Taliban’s more inward-looking goal of governing an independent Afghanistan.
ISIS attacks in Afghanistan frequently target the minority Shiite and Sufi communities, as well as foreigners and foreign interests.
See also Video ‘Taliban Attacks ISIS Hideout in the Afghan Capital’:
(fas/fas)
