Islamic State claims Afghanistan airport checkpoint bombing

The Islamic State group claimed
responsibility for a bombing near a checkpoint at the Afghan capital’s military
airport that killed and wounded several people.
IS said in a statement late
Tuesday that Sunday’s attack on the checkpoint in Kabul was carried out by the
same member who took part in an assault on a hotel in the capital in
mid-December.
The regional affiliate of the
Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has
increased its attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021.
Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite
minority.
IS published a photo of the
attacker identifying him as Abdul Jabbar, saying he withdrew safely from the
attack on the hotel after he ran out of ammunition. It added he detonated his
explosives-laden vest targeting the soldiers gathered at the checkpoint.
The military airport is around
200 meters from the civilian airport and close to the Interior Ministry, itself
the site of a suicide bombing last October that killed at least four people.
\Interior Ministry spokesman
Abdul Nafi Takor said after the attack that the blast left “several” people
dead and wounded. He gave no exact figures or further information about the
bombing, saying details of an investigation will be shared later.
Takor and Khalid Zadran,
spokesman for the Kabul police chief, didn’t respond Wednesday to requests for
casualty figures.
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
high-security neighborhoods housing government ministries, foreign embassies
and the presidential palace.