The Islamic State claimed the attacks which targeted three minibuses in the north of the country. A kabul mosque was also targeted.
Le Monde with AFP
At least twelve people were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, May 25, in four bomb attacks which targeted three minibuses in Mazar-I-Sharif (North) and a mosque in the Kabul capital, the authorities announced. The Islamic State group claimed the attacks in Mazar-i-Sharif in the evening.
The number of attacks has decreased in the country since the Taliban took power in August, but a series of bombing deadly attacks, in which dozens of people have died, struck the country At the end of April, during the holy month of Ramadan.
In Mazar-I-Sharif, the big northern city, at least ten people died and fifteen others were injured, according to police and health services. According to Najibullah Tawana, head of the Balkh health service, three women are among the ten killed in minibus explosions.
In Kabul, in the evening, another bomb attack targeted a mosque, killing at least two people and injuring ten others, said the Ministry of the Interior. Kabul’s emergency hospital, for its part, tweeted a five-killed and twenty-two balance sheets injured in the mosque explosion.
It is not, for the time being, not possible to know if these attacks aimed at a specific community.
several dozen dead in a month
Some of the deadly attacks which struck the country at the end of April had also been claimed by the Islamic State, and had in particular targeted the Shiite Hazara minority, considered as heretical by the jihadist group.
On April 28, already in Mazar-i-Sharif, bomb attacks, claimed by IS, against two minibuses carrying Shiite passengers, had left nine dead. On April 21, a Shiite mosque of this city had also been the target of a bomb. At least twelve people had been killed and fifty-eight injured in this attack, again claimed by IS.
The next day, at least thirty-six people, including children, had died in Kunduz (northeast) in another bomb attack against a Sunni mosque, frequented by Sufis, during Friday prayer . In Kabul, ten people had been killed on April 29 during an explosion in a Sunni mosque, after Friday prayer.
The Taliban are trying to minimize the threat of the Islamic State in Khorassan (IS-K), the regional branch of IS, and lead a merciless fight against the group, which they have been fighting for years. They multiplied the raids, especially in the eastern province of Nangarhar, and arrested hundreds of men accused of being part. They have for a few months they have defeated IS-K, but analysts believe that the extremist group is still the main security challenge for the new Afghan power.