A suicide attacker on a motorbike set off a deadly explosion near a bus carrying media professionals Wednesday in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital, officials said.
Six civilians — including four women — died and at least 24 others were wounded in the Kabul blast, said Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi.
The bomber targeted a bus carrying staff members from Afghan broadcaster Tolo TV and video production outfit Kaboora Productions, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said.
Afghanistan’s parliament building and the Russian Embassy are on the road where the blast occurred. But it was not immediately clear if the attack killed or injured any Afghan public officials or foreign diplomats.
Nor was it known who carried out or ordered the bombing.
The Taliban have been battling the Afghan government and its foreign allies since being ousted from power after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The group has shown few signs of weakening, having claimed attacks on various targets in the past. The Taliban also issued a threat against Tolo TV last year.
Yet the Taliban is hardly the only group responsible for recent violence in Afghanistan.
Under late leader Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda long called the mountainous Asian nation its home and continues to have a presence there, as illustrated by last fall’s joint U.S.-Afghan dismantling of training sites in southern Afghanistan.
And more and more, ISIS is making its presence felt.
That group emerged in Iraq and Syria, where it holds swaths of territory as part of what it calls its Islamic State caliphate, but has carried out or inspired attacks in many other places around the world as well.
The relatively poor, war-torn nation of Afghanistan has been one such locale, with President Ashraf Ghani warning the U.S. Congress last March about the “terrible threat” the group poses to his country and its neighbors.
Gen. John Campbell, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told Congress last fall that between 1,000 and 3,000 active ISIS members were in Afghanistan. Many of these new recruits are disaffected Taliban, a fact that may have played into Russia’s recent decision to share intelligence pertinent to fighting ISIS with the Taliban, its historic foe.
