Kabul: A bomb exploded near a checkpoint at Kabul’s military airport on Sunday morning, killing and injuring several people, a Taliban official said, the first fatal explosion of 2023 in Afghanistan.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group’s regional affiliate – known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province – has ramped up its attacks since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.
The military airport is about 200 meters from the civilian airport and close to the interior ministry, where a suicide bombing killed at least four people last October.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said several people were killed and injured in the blast. He did not give any exact figures or further details about the bombing and said that details of the investigation would be shared later.
Although Taliban security forces prevented photography and filming directly at the blast site, the checkpoint appeared damaged but intact. It is on Airport Road, which leads to government ministries, foreign embassies, and the presidential palace, in a high-security neighborhood.
A spokesman for Kabul police chief Khalid Zadran was not immediately available for comment.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group’s regional affiliate – known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province – has ramped up its attacks since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.
The military airport is about 200 meters from the civilian airport and close to the interior ministry, where a suicide bombing killed at least four people last October.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said several people were killed and injured in the blast. He did not give any exact figures or further details about the bombing and said that details of the investigation would be shared later.
Although Taliban security forces prevented photography and filming directly at the blast site, the checkpoint appeared damaged but intact. It is on Airport Road, which leads to government ministries, foreign embassies, and the presidential palace, in a high-security neighborhood.
A spokesman for Kabul police chief Khalid Zadran was not immediately available for comment.