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.
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.
A bomb attack also killed the head of the mining department in April last year.
ISIL, which has a more sectarian agenda, poses the biggest threat to the Taliban’s authority in the country. It has killed and wounded hundreds of people, including foreigners and members of the minority Hazara, in a bid to undermine the Taliban government.
The armed group has also targeted Taliban administration officials, including claiming the killing of the governor of northern Balkh province in an attack on his office in March.
The Taliban administration has been carrying out raids against members of ISIL.
