A bomb attack in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday killed a security guard and wounded a group of journalists and several children, police and a witness said.
The blast came two days after a suicide bomber killed the Taliban governor of northern Balkh province in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
The attack on Mohammad Dawood Muzammil in the Balkh provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday marked the assassination of one of the top officials since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
The explosion occurred on Saturday during an event celebrating the Afghan media at a cultural center in Mazar-i-Sharif. Police said a security guard was killed and five journalists were among those injured.
“I heard a big bang…then there was chaos because everyone was trying to find a way to escape,” Afghan journalist Atif Arian, who was injured in the blast, told AFP.
“Some journalists are seriously injured.”
Mohammad Asif Waziri, Balkh police spokesman, said three children were among the injured.
Arian said the explosion occurred when a group of children sang a national anthem minutes after a Taliban official gave a speech.
Afghan journalists were regularly targeted before the Taliban retook power, with several attacks claimed by Islamic State.
Muzammil, the governor of Balkh, was killed by an IS suicide bomber minutes after arriving at his office in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Violence across Afghanistan has eased since the Taliban took control, but security has deteriorated again, with Islamic State claiming several deadly attacks.
The jihadist group has emerged as the Taliban government’s biggest security challenge since last year, launching attacks against Afghan citizens as well as foreigners and foreign interests.
The Taliban and IS share a strict Sunni Islamist ideology, but the latter fight for the establishment of a global “caliphate” rather than the Taliban’s more inward-looking goal of ruling an independent Afghanistan.
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