Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has claimed that the United States was behind recent attacks in Afghanistan in which hundreds of people were killed, according to Iranian news agency IRNA.

Khamenei claimed that the Daesh terrorist group, which has become ineffective in Syria and Iraq, was directed to Afghanistan by the U.S. "The U.S. is using [Daesh] in Afghanistan to create justification for its existence in the region and to provide Israel's security," he said.

Last Saturday, a Taliban suicide attacker driving an explosives-packed ambulance blew it up in a crowded area of the capital, killing at least 103 people, mainly civilians, and wounding 235 in one of the worst bombings in Kabul in recent years. The blast was a chilling demonstration of the militants' ability to penetrate the heart of the city despite stepped-up security since a massive truck bombing killed some 150 people and wounded hundreds last May.

The series of assaults, including one of the deadliest bombs in Kabul in recent years, have left already war-weary residents grief-stricken and angry as the Taliban and Daesh escalate their offensives. In Afghanistan, 282 civilians have been killed in Taliban and Daesh attacks in the past month and more than 500 people have been injured.