Afghanistan suicide bombing death toll rises to 21

Last Updated on March 22, 2024 11:38 am

The death toll from a suicide bombing in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar has risen to 21. About fifty people were injured.

On Thursday (March 21), the explosion took place outside a bank in the city, BBC reported. Kandahar is the political headquarters of the Taliban.

Taliban authorities said a suicide bomber detonated a bomb strapped to his body as people gathered to collect their salaries outside the government-run New Kabul Bank.

Witnesses and local officials said the injured were taken to a local hospital. Some of them were seriously injured.

A spokesman for the Taliban’s interior ministry in Kabul said the attack was under investigation.

Meanwhile, the militant group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to reports, Hibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s top leader, lives in Kandahar. He practically ruled from there. This group was born there.

The orders sent regularly by Akhunzada from Kandahar were implemented by the Taliban government in Kabul. Akhunzada himself does not go much outside of Kandahar.

The Islamic State-affiliated IS Khorasan, or Daesh, regularly targets the Taliban and the country’s Shiite minority.