KABUL: At least two people were killed and five others injured in a bomb blast that hit a minibus in Kabul on Wednesday, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks in the Afghan capital.

The explosion destroyed the vehicle in Dasht-i-Barchi, a Taliban official said, in a suburb dominated by Shia Hazara people.

“Our initial information shows the bomb was attached to a minibus. We have launched an investigation,” he said. Different Taliban officials gave varying accounts of the casualties.

A man who was near the scene when the bomb detonated said: “I heard a huge explosion... when I looked around, a minibus and a taxi were on fire,” he said.

“I also saw ambulances rush to the area to take wounded and dead people to the hospital.”

A Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said as many as seven people had been killed and nine wounded.

A second explosion was reported in the nearby Karte 3 area, residents said. A Taliban official said security forces were still gathering information. Images posted on social media showed a car destroyed by flames as well as twisted wreckage.

The explosions added to a series of blasts to hit Kabul in recent days, with Shia areas in the west of the city targeted several times.

Mohammad Nabi, a resident of Dasht-i-Barchi, said it appeared that the second explosion had also caused casualties but there were no immediate details.

The militant Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility in a statement posted on an affiliated Telegram account.

The local affiliate of IS has emerged as the main security threat to the Taliban since the fall of Kabul in August and has mounted attacks across the country that have killed and wounded hundreds.

The attacks have added pressure on the Taliban government, which is grappling with a deepening economic crisis, and dented its assertion that it has restored security to Afghanistan after decades of war.

Last week a journalist was killed and at least four other people injured when a bomb destroyed another minibus in the same area.

An affiliate of the IS claimed responsibility for that attack, boasting it had killed or injured “20 Shia apostates” in the incident.

IS has stepped up operations since the Taliban’s return to power in August.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2021