Afghan Islamic State group claims series of bombings targeting Shiites

People stand outside a mosque
Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate claimed duty for a bomb assault Thursday on this mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif.
(Related Press)

An affiliate of Islamic State on Friday claimed a sequence of bombings from a day earlier that focused Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslims, whereas Pakistan issued a warning of ISIS threats in its japanese Punjab province.

The deadliest of three bombings Thursday in Afghanistan exploded inside a Shiite mosque within the northern metropolis of Mazar-e-Sharif. Hospital officers say a minimum of 12 folks have been killed and as many as 40 have been harm.

Earlier Thursday, a roadside bomb exploded close to a boys’ college within the Afghan capital of Kabul, injuring two kids within the metropolis’s predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. A 3rd bomb in northern Kunduz injured 11 mechanics working for the nation’s Taliban rulers.

Since sweeping to energy final August, the Taliban has been battling the upstart Islamic State affiliate often called Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or ISIS-Okay, which is proving to be an intractable safety problem for Afghanistan’s religiously pushed authorities. In November, the Taliban’s intelligence unit carried out sweeping assaults on suspected ISIS-Okay hideouts in japanese Nangarhar province.

In a press release Friday, ISIS-Okay mentioned the explosive machine that devastated Mazar-e-Sharif’s Sai Doken mosque was hidden in a bag left inside amongst scores of worshipers. As they knelt in prayer, it exploded.

“When the mosque was crammed with prayers, the explosives have been detonated remotely,” the assertion mentioned, claiming that 100 folks have been injured.

The Taliban says it has arrested a former ISIS-Okay chief in northern Balkh province, of which Mazar-e-Sharif is the capital. Zabihullah Noorani, the data and tradition division chief in Balkh province, mentioned Abdul Hamid Sangaryar was arrested in reference to Thursday’s mosque assault.

ISIS-Okay had been comparatively inactive in Afghanistan since November, however in current days it has stepped up its assaults in Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan, taking purpose at Shiite Muslim communities reviled by Sunni radicals.

Earlier this month, two bombs exploded in Kabul’s Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, killing a minimum of seven college students and wounding a number of others.

ISIS-Okay established its headquarters in japanese Afghanistan in 2014 and has been blamed for a number of the worst assaults in Afghanistan, together with a vicious assault on a maternity hospital and an assault at a faculty that killed greater than 80 ladies in 2021, months earlier than the Taliban took energy.

The group additionally took duty for a brutal bombing exterior Kabul Worldwide Airport final August that killed greater than 160 Afghans who had been pushing to enter the airport to flee the nation. 13 U.S. army personnel additionally have been killed as they oversaw America’s remaining withdrawal and the top of its 20-year battle in Afghanistan.

In current months, ISIS-Okay has additionally stepped up assaults in neighboring Pakistan, focusing on a Shiite mosque within the northwestern metropolis of Peshawar in March. Greater than 65 worshipers have been killed. The group has additionally claimed a number of lethal assaults in opposition to Pakistan’s army .

In Pakistan’s central Punjab metropolis of Faisalabad, the native police on Thursday issued a risk warning, saying that “it has been realized that ISIS-Okay has deliberate to hold out terrorist actions in Faisalabad.” The police suggested folks to “train excessive vigilance.”

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