Suicide bombings in Afghanistan target Taliban Heartland

A suicide bombing outside a bank in southern Afghanistan left people dead on Thursday At least 20 people have been implicated, including several members of the Taliban, according to hospital staff, in a bloody reminder of the terrorist threats that have persisted in the country since the end of the US-led war.

The attack took place around 8:30 a.m., when a bomber detonated explosives in front of a New Kabul Bank branch in Kandahar City, the capital of Kandahar province, according to Taliban officials. The blast appeared to have targeted Taliban members who had gathered at the bank to collect their salaries, witnesses and hospital staff said.

About 50 others were injured, according to a doctor and a nurse at Mirwais Regional Hospital in Kandahar city, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

Taliban officials, who disputed the higher death toll, said three people were killed and a dozen others injured in the blast.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban officials at the Interior Ministry said their initial investigation indicated that an Islamic State affiliate in the region — the Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K — was behind the blast.

The government “condemns this attack and assures the people that the perpetrators of this attack will be identified, arrested and handed over to judicial centers as soon as possible,” it said. a statement from the ministry published on X.

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban movement and home to the government’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada. The explosion seemed to send a message that even Taliban soldiers at the heart of the group were not safe.

Although overall security in the country has improved since the US-led war ended in August 2021 and the Taliban took control, there have been sporadic attacks across Afghanistan, mainly targeting Taliban security forces and the Hazara ethnic minority .

The Islamic State affiliate in the region has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. Since seizing power, Taliban security forces have waged a brutal campaign to eliminate ISIS-K. The Taliban killed at least eight of the group’s leaders last year and pushed many other ISIS-K fighters into neighboring Pakistan, according to U.S. officials.

But the group, which is hostile to the Taliban and says it does not adhere to true Sharia law, remains a threat in Afghanistan. The country has also launched large-scale attacks in Pakistan over the past two years, raising concerns that the region is becoming a hotbed of international terrorism.

Hameedullah Sherzad, 40, said he was sleeping in his house next to the bank in Kandahar City on Thursday when his apartment building suddenly shook, waking him. He ran outside and saw Taliban police rushing to the bank and others loading mutilated bodies into the back of their pickup trucks.

“People were bloodied and lying on the back of the vehicles,” he said. When more police vehicles arrived, Mr. Sherzad said, he helped carry four bodies and eight other injured people to hospital.

Dastagir Wafaiee, 24, a local resident, said he was also woken up by the sound of the explosion. He rushed to the roof of his apartment building and saw Taliban vehicles racing toward the scene.

As Taliban police loaded the dead and wounded into their vehicles, others collected the victims’ clothes and shoes and swept up shards of broken glass, Mr. Wafaiee said.

A photo of the aftermath of the attack circulating in Taliban WhatsApp groups and seen by The New York Times shows shattered windows on the bank’s second floor and streaks of blood staining the ground outside the bank’s entrance.

Immediately after the explosion, Taliban officials tried to downplay the severity of the attack and allay concerns that it represented a security lapse by their intelligence and military forces.

“The condition of the injured is not serious; they have superficial injuries,” Inamullah Samangani, director of information and culture of Kandahar province, said in a statement. “The situation is under control.”

Yaqoob Akbary And Safiullah Padshah contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.