ISIL BOMBER KILLS DOZENS AT NEW YEAR EVENT

An Islamic State group suicide bomber struck on the road to a Shiite shrine in Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday, killing at least 33 people as Afghans celebrated the Persian new year, authorities said.

Wahid Majro, spokesman for The Public Health Ministry, said 65 others were wounded in the attack, which was carried out by a bomber on foot.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility in an online statement, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites. The group said the attack targeted “a gathering of Shiites celebrating Nowruz.”

The Persian new year, known in Afghanistan as Nowruz, is a national holiday, and the country’s minority Shiites typically celebrate by visiting shrines. The Sunni extremists of ISIL have repeatedly targeted Shiites, who they view as apostates deserving of death.

The attack took place near Kabul University and a government hospital, around one kilometre away from the Sakhi shrine, where people were gathered to celebrate the new year, said Gen. Daud Amin, Kabul’s police chief.

Daud said the attacker managed to slip past police checkpoints on the road.