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IS claims deadly Kabul attack: propaganda agency
BEIRUT, Nov 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The Islamic State group claimed a suicide
attack that killed six people in Kabul on Monday and wounded 20 others, its
propaganda agency Amaq said.
“A suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt hits a gathering of Shiites
near the presidential palace… in Kabul,” Amaq said.
Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least six people
were killed in the blast, which struck in front of a high school in the
downtown area of the Afghan capital, near the presidential palace.
Initial reports indicated most of the victims were members of the security
forces, but Danish said civilians, including several women, had borne the
brunt of the carnage.
The attack hit close to where scores of Afghans had been protesting
Taliban attacks on the minority Hazara ethnic group, most of whom belong to
the Shiite branch of Islam.
“The suicide attacker on foot wanted to target protesters, but he was
stopped at a security checkpoint some 200 metres (660 feet) from the site,”
interior ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
IS has claimed most suicide attacks in Kabul in recent months.
On October 31, an IS suicide bomber targeting a bus carrying employees of
Afghanistan’s biggest prison — also in Kabul — killed at least seven
people.
That attack came days after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the
entrance of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission in the capital,
killing at least one person.
BSS/AFP/RY/1858 hrs