KABUL: A suicide attack on Monday near Afghanistan’s foreign ministry killed six civilians and wounded several others, the interior ministry said.

Security has dramatically improved since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government and ending their two-decade insurgency, but the militant Islamic State group has proved an increasing threat.

The attacker was identified by Afghan forces who shot at him in front of a business centre near the foreign ministry, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor tweeted. “With his killing, the explosives carried by the attacker also exploded which killed six civilians and wounded a number of others,” he said.

Italian NGO Emergency, which operates a hospital in the capital, confirmed it had received two dead and 12 wounded, including a child.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Monday’s blast was the second attack near the foreign ministry in Kabul in less than three months, and the first since the Muslim holy month of Ramazan began on Thursday in Afghanistan.

On Jan 11, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the foreign ministry, killing 10 and wounding 53 people, according to the United Nations.

The Taliban authorities, who have often tried to play down attacks challenging their rule, had said that five people were killed in that attack, claimed by IS.

The group has increasingly become a major challenge, killing and wounding hundreds of people in several attacks, some targeting foreigners or foreign interests in a bid to undermine the Taliban government.

At least five Chinese nationals were wounded in December when gunmen stormed a hotel popular with businesspeople in Kabul. That raid was claimed by IS, as was an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul also in December that Islamabad denounced as an “assassination attempt” against its ambassador.

Two Russian embassy staff members were killed in a suicide bombing outside their mission in September in another attack claimed by IS.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2023