Dozens dead in attack on shrine as Shiites celebrate new year
● Bomber targets minority in Afghan capital as IS steps up campaign
An Islamic State suicide bomber has struck on the road to a Shiite shrine in Kabul, killing at least 33 people as Afghans celebrated the Persian new year, authorities said.
Public health ministry spokesman Wahid Majro said 65 people were wounded in the attack, which was carried out by a bomber on foot.
IS claimed the attack 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 IS have repeatedly targeted Shiites, who they view as apostates deserving of death.
The attack took place near Kabul University and a government hospital, around a mile away from the Sakhi shrine, where people were gathered to celebrate the new year, said General Daud Amin, Kabul’s police chief.
Gen Daud said the attacker managed to slip past police checkpoints set up along the road.
He said an investigation into the security breach is under way and that anyone found to have neglected his duties would be punished.
One of the city’s largest shrines, Sakhi is revered by many Afghan communities but especially by the Shia minority. It is a focus of New Year prayers in Kabul every year.
Earlier this month another IS suicide bomber targeted Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazaras, killing nine people and wounded 18 others.
The bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint near a gathering of the minority Shiites in western Kabul.
He was on foot and was trying to make his way to a compound where the Hazaras had gathered to commemorate the 1995 death of their leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, who was killed by the Taleban.
Kabul has recently seen a spate of large-scale militant attacks by both the Taleban and IS.
In late January, a Taleban attacker drove an ambulance filled with explosives into the heart of the city, killing at least 103 people and wounding as many as 235. afghan president Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack in a statement , calling it a “crime against humanity”.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres condemned the attack, calling Nowruz “a time of renewal and celebration” when the values of peace and solidarity should be promoted, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, adding: “Those who have organised this attack must be brought to justice.”
US Ambassador to Afghanistan John R Bass said he was saddened by the “shameful” attack.
“I continue to hope that every citizen of Afghanistan soon will be able to live in peace, without fear of indiscriminate attacks by terrorists who have no respect for human life,” he said.
“The United States and its people remain steadfast in their commitment to working with our Afghan partners to combat terrorism and to secure peace in the year ahead.”
The top military officer for the US said yesterday Afghan security forces have identified key areas of the country that must be secure for elections later this year and have planned a series of military operations to free them from Taleban control.
Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said holding secure and successful elections for parliament this year and the president next year will be important in determining the success of the new US war strategy approved by President Donald Trump last August.