ALBAWABA - In a statement on Telegram, ISIS announced responsibility for the deadly attack on a Shiite-majority neighborhood in the Afghan capital Kabul.
With one killed and 11 injured, the ISIS statement reads: "One Shiite was killed in a bombing by Caliphate soldiers in the Afghan capital". Kabul police stated later on Sunday that the attack targeted a neighborhood in western Kabul.
In a post on X, Italian medical care NGO Emergency posted that 8 of the victims of the attack were receiving treatment at their centers, with 7 in imminent need of surgical operations.
The attack took place on a day when the Taliban government, citing its official national calendar, announced a public holiday on Wednesday, August 14 to commemorate "victory day" against US-led international forces.
On August 15, 2021, the Taliban swept back to power in Kabul, with little to no opposition from the then-US-backed government forces, as American and NATO soldiers left the nation after almost two decades of presence in Afghanistan.
ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, is the group's Afghanistan branch, with "Khorasan" referring to a historical territory that covered parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.
A UN counter-terrorism expert warned that IS-K posed the largest external terrorist danger to Europe, having "improved its financial and logistical capabilities in the past six months".
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's chief government spokesperson, claimed the worries highlighted were "driven by propaganda" and that the organization had been "significantly weakened" in Afghanistan.
"The Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan) does not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against the security of any other country or to pose threats from Afghanistan," Mujahid wrote on X.
