ISLAMABAD/KABUL: The ISIL (ISIS) militant group has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that killed a security guard and wounded journalists and children in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif this week.
According to Al-Jazeera, the blast targeting media employees was caused by a “parcel bomb that Islamic States (IS) fighters managed to place and detonate,” the group said in a statement via its Amaq News Agency on Sunday.
The target of journalists in Afghanistan
The statement said, “the blast targeted a rally inside a Shia centre to punish several journalists working for agencies involved in the war and instigation against IS.”
The police said the security guard was killed, while five journalists and three children were injured in the bomb attack.
Saturday’s attack in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, came two days after a suicide bomber killed the governor of Taliban of the same province in an attack claimed by ISIL.
The murder of Governor Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, known for fighting ISIL, marked one of the highest-level attacks since the Taliban took over the country in 2021.
Violence across the country has dramatically dropped since the Taliban seized control, but the security situation has again deteriorated, with ISIL claiming many deadly attacks.
