A car bomb attack killed the deputy governor of a northern Afghan province. According to reports, the acting governor of a northeastern Afghan province was slain in a car bombing, months after the region’s police chief was assassinated in a similar attack claimed by an affiliate of the ISIL (ISIS) group.
The attacker crashed an explosives-laden car into the vehicle carrying Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, acting governor of northern Badakhshan, in Faizabad, the provincial seat.
The attack also killed the driver and injured six others.
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It was unclear who was responsible for the bombing, the first documented attack on a Taliban official in Afghanistan in some weeks. The governor, according to Muazuddin Ahmadi, the province’s head of culture and information, was the target of the attack.
Security has improved since the Taliban retook control in August 2021, deposing the US-backed government and bringing an end to their two-decade conflict, but ISIL remains a menace. Hundreds of thousands of people were slain during the Taliban’s violent struggle against foreign forces led by the United States.
In December of last year, the head of the province’s police force was slain in a suicide bombing claimed by ISIL, and in April of last year, a bomb assault also murdered the director of the mining department.
The ISIL, which has a more sectarian agenda, is the most dangerous threat to the Taliban’s power in Afghanistan. Hundreds of people have been killed or injured as a result of it, including foreigners and members of the Hazara minority, in an attempt to destabilize the Taliban administration.
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The armed organization has also targeted Taliban administration officials, claiming the governor of northern Balkh province was killed in an attack on his office in March.
“Nissar Ahmad Ahmadi and his driver were killed, and six civilians were injured,” said Mahzudeen Ahmadi, the chief of the information office in Badakshan, a province in the country’s extreme north that borders China and Tajikistan.
The perpetrators of the bombing were unknown, as it was the first known large blast or strike on a Taliban official in Afghanistan in recent weeks. The Taliban administration has been conducting raids against militants of the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for many significant attacks in urban areas.
The Islamic State has also targeted Taliban administration officials, including the governor of northern Balkh province, who was killed in an attack on his office in March.
