Militants kill 41 in attack on Shiite cultural center
— An Islamic State suicide bomber struck a Shiite cultural center in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 41 people and underscoring the extremist group’s growing reach in Afghanistan even as its self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria has been dismantled.
The attack may have targeted the pro-Iran Afghan Voice news agency housed in the twostory building. The Sunni extremists view Shiite Muslims as apostates and have repeatedly attacked Afghanistan’s Shiite minority and targets linked to neighboring Iran.
The attack wounded more than 80 people, many of whom suffered severe burns.
Local Shiite leader Abdul Hussain Ramazandada said the bomber slipped into an academic seminar at the center and blew himself up among the participants. More bombs went off just outside the center as people fled.
The Islamic Statelinked Aamaq news agenly cy said four bombs were used in the assault, one strapped to the suicide attacker. It said the center was funded by Iran and used to propagate Shiite beliefs.
At nearby Istiqlal Hospital, Director Mohammed Sabir Nasib said the emergency room was overwhelmed. At the height of the crisis, more than 50 medics were working to save the wounded.
Afghan forces have struggled to combat both the Taliban and Islamic State since U.S. and international forces officialKABUL concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014 and shifted to a support and counterterrorism role more than a decade after the American-led invasion that toppled the Taliban.
President Trump has ordered an additional 3,800 U.S. troops to Afghanistan since announcing a new strategy in August aimed at ending America’s longest war, bringing the total U.S. forces there to at least 15,000.