US condemns ISIS-K attacks on Shiite community in Kabul that killed 8 & injured 18

Amid increased fighting in Afghanistan during the final days of Muharram, the United States has “strongly condemned” the attacks claimed by Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) during Ashura which targeted Hazara and Shia-majority areas in Kabul. Taking to Twitter, the US mission in Afghanistan also expressed condolences to the victims and their families. It stated, “attacking worshippers is reprehensible”.   

Earlier, the United Nations (UN) also decried the explosion that left at least eight people were killed and 18 others injured in Kabul on Friday during a Shia community mourning gathering following the holy month of Muharram. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that the agency urges the de facto authorities, which is the Taliban, to "prevent such attacks". It also expressed condolences to the victims' families.

The condemnation of the ISIS-K-claimed attack came as the Taliban spokesperson revealed that the blast took place in the Sarkariz area of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, according to Tolo News. Denouncing the incident which mounts on years-long violence faced by the Shia community in the war-torn country, UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett called for justice. It is to mention here that the attack came after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan restricted dozens of Shia mosques from holding Eid prayers.

The blast took place on August 5 and ISIS-K claimed responsibility for killing several people who had gathered to commemorate the first 10 days of the Muharram. The blast on Friday was followed by a gunbattle in Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday which claimed the lives of five people. The Taliban had reportedly said that the clashes killed two Taliban police and three Islamic State group gunmen. Khalid Zadran, the Taliban spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said police had launched an operation against the gunmen’s hideout and killed at least three in a neighbourhood in western Kabul. Zadran had also said that the gunmen were IS members.

IS and Taliban rivalry

IS has been operating in Afghanistan since 2014. While both Taliban and IS subscribe to a harsh interpretation of Islam, the Taliban was focused on getting hold of Afghanistan and IS affiliates in the country and other parts of the world have called for global jihad. A United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report in July 2021 claimed that the IS leaders in Iraq and Levant-Khorasan were looking to attract Taliban and other militants who reject the peace deal between the US and the Afghan Taliban. 

The report also claimed that the IS in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan have moved into other provinces and they have formed sleeper cells in Nuristan, Badghis, Sari Pul, Baghlan, Badakhshan, Kunduz and Kabul. According to the UNSC, the sleeper cells were formed despite territorial, leadership, manpower and financial losses in 2020 in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces.

“Its leaders also hope to attract intransigent Taliban and other militants who reject the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the United States of America and the Taliban and to recruit fighters from the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq and other conflict zones,” read the report.

Image: AP