![Locals try to extinguish the fire after an ISIS bomb targeted a civilian minibus in Mazar-e-Sharif April 29. [Social media]](/cnmi_st/images/2022/04/29/35191-frcpe7ixsaafvna-739_416.webp)
KABUL -- The "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) claimed two bomb blasts aboard minibuses that killed at least nine people Thursday (April 28) in Mazar-e-Sharif, a week after a deadly explosion at a Shia mosque in the city.
A string of deadly bombings targeting minority communities has convulsed the country in the past two weeks.
Thursday's blasts occurred within minutes of each other in different districts of Mazar-e-Sharif as commuters were heading home to break their daily fast, Balkh provincial police spokesman Asif Waziri told AFP.
"The targets appear to be Shia passengers," he said, adding 13 people were wounded in the blasts.
ISIS's Khorasan branch (ISIS-K) took responsibility for the bombings, which it said inflicted 30 casualties.
Images posted on social media showed one minibus engulfed in fire, while the other was mangled.
A series of sectarian bombings
The blasts came one week after an attack on a Shia mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif killed at least 12 worshippers and wounded scores more.
That explosion was followed a day later by the bombing of another mosque in Kunduz targeting the minority Sufi community.
It killed at least 36 people during Friday prayers.
In Kabul, another attack also targeted Shia, with two bombs detonated at a school, killing six students.
ISIS claimed the mosque attack in Mazar-e-Sharif, but no group has so far taken responsibility for the bombing in Kunduz or at the Kabul school.
ISIS-K in Sunni-majority Afghanistan has repeatedly targeted Shia and minorities such as Sufis, who follow a mystical branch of Islam.
Shia Afghans, who are mostly from the Hazara community, make up 10% to 20% of Afghanistan's population of 38 million.
Afghan authorities told AFP earlier Thursday that several arrests had been made in connection with the string of recent attacks.
Like his father, Ahmad Massoud, turned to begin terrorist acts against the Afghan people. Now is the time for the world to bring Resistance Front (ISIS) which is led by Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh, to justice for their involvement in carrying terrorist acts and killing innocent people under the shadow of ISIS and at the behest of other countries and stop raising them.
Reply2 Comment
I don't know what to say about these consecutive attacks and the flow of the flood-like bleeding of Afghans? No one's life was this priceless throughout the history as that of the Afghans. One wonders why these wild intelligence agencies are not getting fed up by killing our poor people? Why is every plan designed to destroy and kill more Afghans? Why don't Afghans, like other human beings, have the right to live in peace, benefit from the progress of the 21st century, and why should they always sacrifice for the benefit of great nations? Why each stone falls on the head of Afghans?
Reply2 Comment