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Kabul: Tragedy strike yesterday on Afghan capital Kabul when 7 civilians killed and over 20 injured in a minibus explosion in Dasht-e-Barchi area of the city’s western part. The Sunni militant group said its members detonated an explosive device on the bus carrying Shiite Muslims. The blast took place in a ‘Coaster’ city vehicle, a common means of transport in the bustling city.
Twenty others were severely injured in the attack in Kabul’s western Shiite neighborhood of Dashti Barchi, according to police spokesman Khalid Zadran.
The blast was the second attack to hit the region in as many weeks. On October 26, four people were killed and seven injured in an explosion at a nearby sports club. ISIL also claimed responsibility for that attack.
The Dashti Barchi area of Kabul has been targeted recently by a group affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Afghanistan, which has carried out massive attacks on schools, hospitals and mosques. The group has also attacked other Shiite areas of Afghanistan in recent years. ISIS has been waging a campaign of violence since the Taliban took power in August 2021.
Earlier on October 13, more than seven people were killed and around 40 others injured after a blast struck a Shiite mosque during Friday prayers in Afghanistan. The incident occurred in the Pol-e-Khomri – the provincial capital of Baghlan.
In August, an explosion in a hotel in a city in Afghanistan’s Khost province killed three people and injured seven others. The hotel is said to be frequented by Afghans and Pakistani refugees from North Waziristan, a terrorist stronghold. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, although the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has blamed ISIS’s regional affiliate for the attack.
The IS affiliate is mainly based in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province and has been a major rival of the Taliban since the Sunni group seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021. IS militants have struck in Kabul, in northern provinces and especially wherever there are Shiites, whom IS considers to be apostates.
