IS suicide bomber kills at least 9 in Kabul; Taliban kill 16 in province

KABUL: An Islamic State suicide bomber targeted Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazaras on Friday, blowing himself up at a police checkpoint near a gathering of the minority sh ia sin western kabul, killing nine people and wounding 18, officials said.

In northern Afghanistan, the Taliban assaulted an army outpost overnight in an hours-long firefight, and ambushed policemen sent to help the troops, killing six soldiers and 10 members of the local police.

The attacks under score the difficulties President Ash raf G han i’ s government is facing as it battles a revamped Taliban insurgency andstruggles torein in the islamic state group, whose affiliate in Afghanistan has grownstronger since it emerged in 2014.

Kabul has recently seen asp ate of large-scale militant attacks by the Taliban and also IS. In late January, a Taliban attacker drove an ambulance filled with explosives into the heart of the city, killing at least 103 people and wounding as many as 235.

Infriday’s attack, Basirmujahid, spokesman for the Kabul policechief, saidt he bomber was on foot and was trying to make his way to a compound where the Hazaras had gathered to commemorate the1995 death of their leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, who was killed by the Taliban.

The bomber came as close to the gathering as he could and detonated his explosive sat the checkpoint outside, the spokesman said. One policeman was among the dead.

Shortly after the attack, President Ghani issued a statement condemning the bombing and promising that thosebehindit, if found and convicted, would be given the death penalty. The attack was intended to frighten Afghans but the perpetrators would not succeed, he said.