[Although the Islamic State has lost nearly all of its former strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the threat that the group poses to the rest of the world has not abated, and in some parts of the world it has increased. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has caused more casualties in Kabul than the Taliban, and in Yemen, the number of the group’s fighters has doubled in the past year, according to the United States military. In recent months, the group also carried out what officials called the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Egyptian history, which took the lives of more than 300 people at a Sufi mosque.]
BY Fahim Abed
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Ambulances
and security forces converged near the scene of a suicide bombing in Kabul,
Afghanistan,
on Thursday. Credit Associated Press
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KABUL,
Afghanistan — A suicide
bomber working for the Islamic State attacked a market where shopkeepers were
protesting against the police in Kabul late on Thursday, killing at least 20
people and wounding more than two dozen others, officials said.
Nasrat Rahimi, a deputy spokesman for the
Interior Ministry, said that civilians and members of the security forces were
among the casualties, which he put at 20 dead and 30 wounded. Other security
officials said that most of the victims were members of the country’s police
force.
Najib Danish, another spokesman for the
Interior Ministry, said that on Wednesday, city police officers raided a market
where alcohol, drugs and other banned substances were being sold and arrested
two people. On Thursday, the shopkeepers started clashing with the police and
burned a police vehicle. One of the protesters was killed.
The suicide bomber was on foot and detonated
explosives in the area around 8:30 p.m. as the security forces had gathered to
close more shops, officials said.
Hours later, the Islamic State claimed
responsibility for the attack, issuing a bulletin on its Amaq news agency. The
statement was disseminated on the messaging app Telegram, where members and
followers congregate in secret channels, or chat rooms.
Although the Islamic State has lost nearly
all of its former strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the threat that the group
poses to the rest of the world has not abated, and in some parts of the world
it has increased. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has caused
more casualties in Kabul than the Taliban, and in Yemen, the number of the
group’s fighters has doubled in the past year, according to the United States
military. In recent months, the group also carried out what officials called
the deadliest terrorist attack in modern
Egyptian history, which took the lives of more than 300 people at a Sufi
mosque.
The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan,
which first emerged in the eastern part of the country in 2014, has
increasingly carried out deadlier attacks in Kabul. Last week, the group
claimed an attack on a Shiite cultural center in western Kabul that left at
least 40 people dead and dozens wounded.
While the group has faced intense pressure
from Afghan commandos and American airstrikes in its foothold in Nangarhar
Province, officials have struggled to gain a clear understanding of the urban
cells behind the latest spate of attacks claimed by the group. In the past,
many of the urban attacks in places like Kabul were carried out by the Haqqani
network, a lethal arm of the Taliban.
United States Special Forces units advise
Afghan forces in their operations in Nangarhar, and they are often engaged in
combat there, too. On Jan. 1, one soldier, Sgt. First Class Mihail Golin, 34,
was killed in the Achin district when a patrol was targeted, making him the
first military casualty of 2018, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
Fatima Faizi contributed reporting from
Kabul; Mujib Mashal from Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Rukmini Callimachi from New
York.
