IS suicide bomber targets Kabul police, 20 killed
A suicide bomber targeted a gathering of police officers in Kabul on Thursday evening, killing 20 and wounding another 27, officials said.
The blast targeted police as they clashed with angry protesters following a raid on shopkeepers accused of illegally peddling drugs and alcohol.
“At this time a suicide bomber detonated himself among the crowd, killing and injuring dozens,” Kabul police spokesman Abdul Basir Mujahid told AFP. All of the dead were police. “The bomber came from among the protesters and targeted our police forces,” deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told reporters, adding the attacker was wearing civilian clothes.
The blast stripped bark from trees and shattered windows of nearby apartments, underscoring the devastating force of a single suicide bomber.
The IS group has gained ground in Afghanistan since it first appeared in the region in 2015 and has scaled up its attacks in Kabul, including on security installations and the country’s Shiite minority.
Thursday’s assault was the first major attack carried out by IS militants in Kabul this year, but follows a series of deadly ambushes in the capital in recent weeks. In December alone IS claimed three attacks that killed dozens of civilians.
On Wednesday, Afghanistan’s spy agency announced it busted a 13-member IS cell in Kabul that had been hatching “a series of big terrorist attacks” in the city.