A bomb placed in a vehicle exploded when another with employees of an oil company was passing by
At least six people were killed and seven wounded on Tuesday in a bomb attack in northern Afghanistan against a vehicle carrying employees of an oil company, an official source said. “This morning an explosion took place in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, which left six dead and seven injured. The explosion was caused by a bomb planted in a car, which detonated by a vehicle carrying employees of an oil company,” the police spokesman for the northern province of Balkh, Mohammad Asif Waziri.
So far no insurgent group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in urban centers in Afghanistan in the past year.
Since the Taliban came to power in August last year, the Islamic State of Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the terrorist group, has emerged as the main threat to the country’s stability, although fundamentalists insist on denying that the armed organization represents a security challenge.
The IS claimed responsibility for an attack, on December 2, in which two snipers from the jihadist group attacked the person in charge of the Pakistani embassy and his guards while they were inside the diplomatic headquarters. A security guard was seriously injured while protecting the head of mission, and the Taliban government reported yesterday the arrest of the alleged perpetrator and member of IS in a quick reaction by Islamist forces under pressure from Islamabad.
The IS has also claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, especially against members of the Hazara Shiite minority, in addition to bombing and suicide attacks on mosques, schools, diplomatic or high-security areas. Only last September at least 53 people died , including 46 girls and young women, and 110 were injured, in a suicide attack against an educational center located in a neighborhood of the discriminated Shiite Hazara minority in Kabul.
The Taliban, for their part, have led operations in various parts of the country in an attempt to dismantle the jihadists and materialize the security promises they made during the war, before coming to the government, when they assured that the areas under their control were Free from terrorism and crime.