Suicide bombing targets Taliban heartland
A suicide bombing outside a bank in southern Afghanistan on Thursday killed at least 20 people, including several members of the Taliban, according to hospital staff, in a bloody reminder of the terrorist threats that have persisted in the country since the U.S.-led war ended.
The attack occurred about 8:30 a.m., when a bomber detonated explosives in front of a branch of the New Kabul Bank in Kandahar City, the capital of Kandahar province, according to Taliban officials. The blast appeared to have targeted Taliban members who had gathered at the bank to collect their salaries, witnesses and hospital staff said.
About 50 others were injured, according to a doctor and a nurse at Mirwais Regional Hospital in Kandahar City who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.
Taliban officials, disputing that higher death toll, said that three people had been killed and a dozen others injured in the blast.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban officials at the Ministry of Interior said their initial investigations suggested that the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate had been behind the blast.
The government “condemns this attack and assures people that the perpetrators of this attack will be identified, arrested and handed over to judicial centers as soon as possible,” according to a statement from the ministry that was published on X, formerly Twitter.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban movement and home to the government's supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada. The explosion appeared to send a message that even Taliban soldiers in the group's heartland were not safe.
Although overall security in the country has improved since the U.S.-led war ended in August 2021 and the Taliban seized control, there have been sporadic attacks across Afghanistan, mostly targeting Taliban security forces and the Hazara ethnic minority.
The Islamic State affiliate in the region has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Since seizing power, Taliban security forces have carried out a ruthless campaign to eliminate the affiliate. Last year, the Taliban killed at least eight leaders of the group, according to American officials, and pushed many other fighters for the affiliate into neighboring Pakistan.
But the group, which has been antagonistic toward the Taliban, saying they are not carrying out true Shariah law, continues to pose a threat in Afghanistan.