At least one person was killed and three others were injured Saturday, April 30, in the explosion that hit a minibus in Kabul, authorities said. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on Saturday on a Telegram account used to spread its propaganda.
“A woman was killed (Saturday) and three other people were injured”, Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Kabul commander, told Reuters. This is the second bomb attack in two days in the Afghan capital after the one that killed around 50 people on Friday in a Sunni mosque in the capital. The authorities feared a resurgence of violence on the occasion of Eid-el-Fitr, the feast of the breaking of the fast, which marks the end of Ramadan.
A witness to the blast, Ali Maisam, 19, who was standing outside a nearby bakery, said he saw several bodies. “I saw people getting out of the minibus with burnt and bloody faces. (…) I saw that four bodies were being removed, I saw a woman among the victims”he said.
Taliban authorities announced on Saturday that Eid al-Fitr would be celebrated on Sunday. They also tried to allay public fears about security ahead of the party.
Upsurge in attacks
Security initially improved in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power in August, although the Islamic State in Khorassan (I-K), the regional branch of ISIS, continued to carry out deadly attacks . But the frequency of attacks increased significantly in April, targeting in particular the Shiite Hazara minority, considered heretical by the jihadists of the IS.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemned” Saturday “murderous attack” occurred the day before against the Khalifa Saib mosque. “Attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including mosques, are strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law”he recalled in a press release.
In a separate statement, members of the UN Security Council condemned “in the strongest terms the continuation of the heinous terrorist attacks targeting civilians in Afghanistan”.
On Thursday, bomb attacks, claimed by IS, against two minibuses carrying Shiite passengers, had killed at least nine people in Mazar-e Charif (north). On April 21, a Shiite mosque in this city was also the target of a bomb. At least twelve people were killed and 58 injured, and again IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
The next day, at least 36 people, including children, were killed in another bomb attack against a Sunni mosque frequented by Sufis during Friday prayers in Kunduz (northeast). A few days earlier, explosions in a school for boys in a Shiite district of Kabul had killed six people.