In another attack targeting the minority Shiite community in Afghanistan, a bomb went off Saturday in a Shiite neighborhood in Kabul killing at least two people and wounding 22, a Taliban official said. This is the second bomb blast in Kabul in two days.
On Friday, a bomb hidden in a cart went off near a mosque in another Shiite area of Kabul, killing at least eight people and wounding 18. Daesh group claimed responsibility for that attack. On Wednesday, a gunbattle between the Taliban and Daesh gunmen killed five, including two Taliban fighters, near the Sakhi shrine in the Karti Sakhi neighborhood of the Afghan capital. The attack took place amid preparations for Ashoura, which commemorates the seventh century death in battle of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
According to Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesperson for the Kabul police chief, the explosion occurred in western Kabul's Puli-e Sokhta area. One of the wounded was in critical condition, he added. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but the blame is likely to fall on the Daesh group, which has targeted Afghanistan's minority Shiites in large-scale attacks in the past.
The regional affiliate of Daesh, known as the Daesh-Khorasan Province (Daesh-K), has increased attacks on mosques and minorities across the country since the Taliban seized power last August.
Daesh, which emerged in eastern Afghanistan in 2014, is seen as the greatest security challenge facing the country's new Taliban rulers. Following their takeover a year ago, the Taliban have launched a sweeping crackdown on Daesh.
