ISIS motorcycle bomb, ISIS terror thugs played out their expansion plans in Afghanistan by killing at least 33 innocent people and wounding 125 Saturday in a suicide bombing so vile, it was even denounced by the murderous Taliban.
“It was an evil act. We strongly condemn it,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters of the bank-branch bombing in Jalalabad, carried out by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle.
Several children were among the dead in the attack — believed to be the terror group’s first major strike in Afghanistan — on a branch of Kabul Bank, which was crowded with government workers collecting their monthly salaries.
The blast smashed windows and sent debris flying across a tree-lined street. Emergency crews in Jalalabad struggled to deal with the calamity, and many people were taken to the hospital in rickshaws and private cars.
Two explosives-rigged motorcycles discovered in the city were destroyed in controlled detonations, authorities said.
Afghanistan’s offshoot of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria took credit for the blast in phone calls to news agencies and in online posts, and released a picture of the suicide bomber.
The Taliban has always said it targets foreigners or the Afghan military in its attacks. Unlike ISIS, it rarely claims credit for killing groups of civilians.
“Carrying out terrorist attacks in cities and public places are the most cowardly acts of terror,” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a statement.
ISIS militants have gained a foothold in Afghanistan in the last few months. Afghan legislators complained last September that ISIS was active in parts of the country. Afghan officials
confirmed ISIS’s presence in January.
ISIS has recruited disenchanted extremists from the Taliban and other organizations impressed by its territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. Afghan extremists also like ISIS’s slick online propaganda.
During a Washington visit in March, Ghani said it is “critical that the world understand the terrible threat” ISIS poses to western and central Asia.
But analysts and officials say the number of Islamic State supporters in Afghanistan and nearby parts of Pakistan remains small and that the group faces resistance from militants with strong tribal links.
Ghani has called on the Taliban to join with the Kabul government, and said that any Taliban who switched allegiance to Islamic State would earn the wrath of Afghanistan’s religious leaders.
Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan owe their allegiance to Mullah Omar, a cleric who has led the Taliban since the 1990s but has not been seen or heard in public for years.
Officials fear that an Islamic State push into the region could bring an infusion of guns and money, sparking brutal competition among local militants disenchanted with Mullah Omar’s silence and eager to prove themselves with escalating atrocities.
Several children were among the dead in the attack — believed to be the terror group’s first major strike in Afghanistan — on a branch of Kabul Bank, which was crowded with government workers collecting their monthly salaries.
The blast smashed windows and sent debris flying across a tree-lined street. Emergency crews in Jalalabad struggled to deal with the calamity, and many people were taken to the hospital in rickshaws and private cars.
Two explosives-rigged motorcycles discovered in the city were destroyed in controlled detonations, authorities said.
Afghanistan’s offshoot of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria took credit for the blast in phone calls to news agencies and in online posts, and released a picture of the suicide bomber.
The Taliban has always said it targets foreigners or the Afghan military in its attacks. Unlike ISIS, it rarely claims credit for killing groups of civilians.
“Carrying out terrorist attacks in cities and public places are the most cowardly acts of terror,” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a statement.
ISIS militants have gained a foothold in Afghanistan in the last few months. Afghan legislators complained last September that ISIS was active in parts of the country. Afghan officials
confirmed ISIS’s presence in January.
ISIS has recruited disenchanted extremists from the Taliban and other organizations impressed by its territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. Afghan extremists also like ISIS’s slick online propaganda.
During a Washington visit in March, Ghani said it is “critical that the world understand the terrible threat” ISIS poses to western and central Asia.
But analysts and officials say the number of Islamic State supporters in Afghanistan and nearby parts of Pakistan remains small and that the group faces resistance from militants with strong tribal links.
Ghani has called on the Taliban to join with the Kabul government, and said that any Taliban who switched allegiance to Islamic State would earn the wrath of Afghanistan’s religious leaders.
Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan owe their allegiance to Mullah Omar, a cleric who has led the Taliban since the 1990s but has not been seen or heard in public for years.
Officials fear that an Islamic State push into the region could bring an infusion of guns and money, sparking brutal competition among local militants disenchanted with Mullah Omar’s silence and eager to prove themselves with escalating atrocities.
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