Suicide bomber kills 6 in Kabul

A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed six people in Kabul on Wednesday in an attack targeting a minibus with security agents working for the government. The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan promptly claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Sediq Sediqqi, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said four civilians and two members of the agency were killed. The attack also left 13 people wounded, including five members of the security force.

The blast destroyed the minibus and another car, which were quickly towed away as security forces sealed off the site of the suicide attack on a wide Kabul boulevard.

An Afghan security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the bomber intentionally targeted the minibus with the members of the agency that provides protection for high-ranking government officials — similar to the U.S. Secret Service.

The attack was the second this year against the agency. In April, a coordinated Taliban assault using a suicide truck bomb and gunmen killed 64 people at the agency’s main compound in Kabul.

The Afghan IS affiliate claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack in a posting on a website used by the militants, saying an IS bomber attacked intelligence service employees.

In other violence, a man was killed late Tuesday night when a sticky bomb attached to his car detonated in Kabul, the city’s police said. The police said the vehicle belonged to a government ministry office in charge of rural development.

The Islamic State group emerged for the first time last year in Afghanistan as an offshoot of the militant group fighting in Iraq and Syria. Analysts believe the IS affiliate in the country is mostly made up of disenfranchised Taliban fighters.