Conflicts & War

At least 7 civilians killed in 2 bombs in Kabul

Kabul, Jun 12 (EFE).- At least seven people were killed and six others wounded in two explosions on minibuses in the west of the city of Kabul, a minority Shiite Hazara area.

The first explosion occurred at around 2:50 pm local time when a bomb attached to a minibus loaded with passengers detonated in police district 13 in western Kabul, Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Ahmad Zia told Efe.

The second explosion, which was also caused by a bomb attached to another minivan, went off a few minutes later in the city’s police district number six, he said.

“Unfortunately in these blasts seven of our citizens were killed and another six injured,” Zia said, adding that all of the victims were civilians.

Both blasts took place in the west of the Afghan capital, in areas populated by the Shiite Hazara minority, a community that in recent years has been targeted in attacks on mosques, sports halls, educational institutions and even weddings.

Most of these attacks were claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which considers them apostates, although the Afghan government usually blames the Taliban.

The Taliban have always denied involvement in attacks against civilians.

In one of the worst attacks against the minority, on May 8 in Kabul, at least 85 civilians — mostly girls — were killed, and 147 others were wounded in the attack on a girls’ school, in which first a car bomb exploded and then two other devices were detonated.

There has been a particularly bloody spike in violence in the country in recent weeks, following the start of the withdrawal of US troops from the country, a process due to be complete by September 11.

In the last 24 hours, at least 152 Taliban fighters have been killed and 74 others wounded by Afghan security forces in these clashes, the Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily report. EFE

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