Taliban suicide bomber kills 35 in Kabul

While claiming responsibility for the attack, Taliban claimed that several intelligence officers have been killed

A Taliban suicide bomber who blew himself up in the western part of Kabul has killed 35 people and injured over 40 today morning, according to reports emerging from both the interior ministry and international agencies.

The attack took place in a region where mainly the Shi’ite Hazara community lives. The Hazara community is a Persian speaking minority that lives in parts of Kabul, Iran and Pakistan. The community has a long history of being persecuted in the region right up to the sixteenth century. Recently, under the Taliban rule in the country, they were targeted relentlessly and killed by the Pashtuns.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. The spokesperson for the radical/extremist terror organisation, Zabihulla Maujahid, has claimed that several “intelligence officers have been killed.” This is part of a recent wave of attacks in the country carried out by the terror outfit in the hope of wresting control of some territory from the NATO forces.

In the attack, a bus owned by the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines, three civilian vehicles and 15 shops were destroyed or damaged in the bomb explosion. This suicide bombing came two weeks after the Islamic State (IS) group claimed an attack on a mosque in the capital that killed at least four people.

Yesterday, dozens of Afghan troops were under siege after Taliban fighters overran a district in northern Faryab province, a spokesman for the provincial police said. There was also fighting in Baghlan, Badakhshan, and Kunduz provinces in Afghanistan’s north, and Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan in the south, according to officials.

The resurgence of violence also coincides with the US administration weighing up its strategic options for Afghanistan, including the possibility of sending more troops to bolster the training and advisory mission already helping Afghan forces.

With inputs from UNI