KABUL: Four back-to-back roadside bombs exploded in a northern district of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Monday, wounding four civilians including a child, police said.
Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said a clearance team was at the site of the attacks.
Militants have carried out several roadside bombings and rocket attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country in recent weeks, but Monday’s four consecutive explosions appeared to be the first coordinated effort for some months.
The Taliban has not carried out any large attacks in the city since they signed a landmark withdrawal deal with the US in February, meant to pave the way for peace in the country. No group has claimed the attacks. The explosions come as authorities are trying to impose a lockdown in the capital to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.
Earlier, A Taliban key commander Ali Murad along with two of his bodyguards were killed in northern Jawzjan province on Monday, provincial government spokesman Abdul Marouf Azar said. “A group of militants under Ali Murad was planning to target security checkpoints in Aqcha district Monday morning but the security forces in preemptive action struck the militants’ gathering, killing three rebels including infamous commander Ali Murad,” Azar told Xinhua. Five more militants sustained injuries in the raid, the official further said. The official also admitted that one security personnel was killed and another wounded during the crackdown. Describing Ali Murad as a notorious commander, the official asserted that Murad’s death could deal a major blow to the Taliban militants in Jawzjan and its vicinity. The security forces also arrested three Taliban militants in the northern Takhar province on Monday. Taliban militants who have stepped up activities over the past couple of months haven’t commented.
Meanwhile, Six security personnel and six insurgents were killed as clash erupted in Alishing district of the eastern Laghman province on Sunday, provincial government spokesman Assadullah Dawlatzai said Monday. The clash broke out after a group of Taliban militants attacked security checkpoints in Qala-e-Kochian area of the restive district late Sunday night, triggering gun battle which lasted for a while, leaving six militants and six security personnel dead. At least 17 more militants and five security personnel sustained injuries in the fight, the official said. The Taliban outfit has yet to make comments.
On the other hand, Afghan security forces arrested three senior South Asia Islamic State members including the group’s regional leader, the government said on Monday. The militant group’s head of South Asia, Abu Omar Khorasani, was arrested in Kabul alongside the group’s spy chief and public relations officer, the General Directorate of National Security (NDS) and Interior Ministry said in a statement. “NDS will continue its comprehensive and targeted operations to hunt down senior leaders of regional terrorist groups and destroy the joint hubs of these terrorist networks,” the statement said.
South Asia Islamic State is mainly focused on a small presence in Afghanistan, largely in the north, though it has waged high profile attacks further south in the capital.
Afghan security forces arrested eight members of a network grouping Islamic State and Haqqani militants responsible for bloody attacks in the capital including on Sikh worshippers, the country’s security agency said last Wednesday. The ongoing violence underscored the challenges to securing lasting peace in Afghanistan even after the United States signed a troop withdrawal agreement with the militant Taliban in February. The Taliban, which says it opposes the Islamic State and has fought the group, has since held off on large-scale attacks on foreign forces or in major centres, though it has continued attacking Afghan security forces throughout the provinces. On Monday, there were four roadside blasts in the capital which wounded four civilians, including a child, according to Kabul’s police. No group immediately claimed responsibility.–Agencies
