The interior ministry reported that a Monday suicide attack near Kabul’s foreign office killed six civilians and injured several others.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, displacing the US-backed government and ending their two-decade insurgency, the security situation has vastly improved, but the Islamic State has become a growing concern.
Afghan forces fired upon the assailant in front of a business center near the foreign ministry, according to a tweet from the interior ministry’s spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor.
“With his death, the attacker’s explosives also detonated, killing six civilians and wounding several others,” he said.
The Italian NGO Emergency, which runs a capital hospital, reported two deaths and twelve injuries, including a minor.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Monday’s explosion was the second in less than three months near the foreign ministry in Kabul. And the first since Thursday when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began in Afghanistan.
On January 11, a suicide bomber killed 10 and wounded 53 near the foreign ministry, according to the UN.
This attack claimed by IS resulted in the deaths of five individuals, according to the Taliban authorities, who have frequently attempted to minimize attacks against their rule.
The group has become an increasing threat, murdering and wounding hundreds of people in multiple attacks. Some of which target foreigners or foreign interests to destabilize the Taliban government.
At least five Chinese nationals were injured when gunmen attacked a hotel in Kabul frequented by businesspeople in December.
IS claimed credit for a December attack on Pakistan’s Kabul embassy, which Islamabad called a “attempted assassination” of its ambassador.
Another IS-claimed suicide bomber killed two Russian embassy workers in September.
IS and the Taliban both adhere to a strict Sunni Islamist ideology, but IS is striving to establish a global “caliphate” while the Taliban seek to rule an independent Afghanistan.
