The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for targeting a Shiite cultural center in Kabul with bombs, killing more than 40 people and wounding over 80 others.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack as a “crime against humanity” in a statement released by the presidential palace, adding, “The terrorists have killed our people. The terrorists have attacked our mosques, our holy places and now our cultural center.”
He described the deadly incident, which took place in the Shiite-majority Kabul neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, as a heinous act against Islam and “all human values.”
ISIS’s Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) wing has been increasingly targeting Shiites in Kabul.
“Earlier this year, the Islamic State vowed to target Afghanistan’s Shiites following an attack on the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul,” points out Fox News.
This month alone, the jihadist group killed six people in the Afghan capital on Christmas Day and triggered a gunfight after it stormed intelligence in Kabul on December 18.
ISIS-K officially established a foothold in Afghanistan less than a month after former U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO declared combat operations concluded at the end of December 2014 in the war-ravaged country.
Fox News reports, “The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the simultaneous attack on an Afghanistan news agency and a Shiite cultural center in Kabul that left at least 41 dead and 84 wounded.”
In a statement issued through its propaganda agency, ISIS claimed one suicide bomber wearing a vest conducted the attack with the help of three other explosions, reports Reuters.
Fox News learned from Najib Danish, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, that “an unknown number of suicide attackers set off an explosion outside the center before storming the building when they set off more explosives in the basement.”
Citing witnesses, Abdul Hussain Ramazandada, an Afghan Shitte leader, reportedly revealed that at least one of the suicide attackers was able to infiltrate the event and sit among the attendees before detonating his device.
Despite taking place in Kabul, home to U.S. and NATO headquarters, the terrorists failed to kill or hurt any American-led coalition force.
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