At least one security guard was killed on Saturday and nearly twenty were injured, most of them reporters, in a bomb attack on a Shiite cultural center in the northern Afghan province of Balkh, the scene of several attacks in the last week, including the one that killed its governor.
The spokesman of the Taliban Interior Ministry, Abdul Nafay Takoor, explained that the detonation occurred at the Tabayan cultural center in the provincial capital, Mazar e Sharif, the scene of an event to thank the press for their work in the province, according to a press conference reported by Tolo News.
The Taliban authorities initially reported eight wounded, including three children, but the Afghanistan Center for Journalists has raised the number of wounded employees to 16.
A media outlet associated with the cultural center, Avapress, reported three dead and 30 wounded in the attack, according to its own sources, in a story quoted by the DPA agency.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but all eyes are on the Afghan branch of the jihadist organization Islamic State, which has been targeting the country’s Shiite and Hazara minority for years, especially taking advantage of the security gaps opened up by the Taliban reconquest of the country.
In fact, it should be recalled that an Islamic State attack in 2017 against a branch of Tabayan — an Iranian-backed organization — in the capital, Kabul, which ended up leaving around half a hundred dead.
Islamic State on Thursday claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the governor of Balkh province, Daud Muzmal, who was killed in an explosion during a meeting at his provincial office.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
