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A high Taliban official has been assassinated by a bomb planted in his workplace, Afghan police have reported.
The explosion killed Muhammad Dawood Muzamil – the provincial governor of Afghanistan’s Balkh province – together with two different officers contained in the governor’s workplace within the provincial capital Mazar-e Sharif, native police spokesman Asif Waziri mentioned.
Waziri added that the blast, which he mentioned was a suicide assault, occurred on the second flooring of Muzamil’s workplace.
‘It was a suicide assault. We do not have info as to how the suicide bomber reached the workplace of the governor,’ he concluded.
Some native media experiences mentioned greater than 30 individuals had been wounded by the blast and had been taken to hospital for therapy.
Taliban’s Balkh province governor Muhammad Dawood Muzamil was assassinated in his workplace
A video from the aftermath of the explosion confirmed appreciable harm to the workplace, with the door blown off its hinges
Taliban officers and fighters are seen inspecting the harm following the blast
A wounded man receives therapy at a hospital after a bomb blast in Mazar-e Sharif, the capital metropolis of Balkh province, in northern Afghanistan, Thursday, March 9, 2023
Zabihullah Mujahid, essential spokesman for the Taliban’s authorities, mentioned an investigation has been opened into the incident, however didn’t present extra particulars.
He added in a while Twitter that the governor had been ‘martyred in an explosion by the enemies of Islam’.
Nobody instantly claimed accountability for Thursday’s assault, however the regional affiliate of the so-called Islamic State group – generally known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (IS-Okay) – is a key rival of the Taliban.
The explosion occurred moments after the governor arrived in his workplace, mentioned a person who was wounded within the incident.
‘There was a bang. I fell on the bottom,’ he informed AFP, including that he witnessed a good friend lose a hand within the blast.
Authorities deployed additional safety on the governorate who forbade journalists from taking pictures, an AFP correspondent reported from close to the location of the blast.
Muzamil was appointed governor of Balkh final yr and has a historical past of main crackdowns on IS militants, significantly throughout his earlier posting as governor of the japanese Nangarhar Province.
On Wednesday, he met two deputy prime ministers and different senior officers visiting Balkh to evaluation a serious irrigation mission in northern Afghanistan, in line with a authorities assertion.
IS has emerged as the most important safety problem to the Taliban authorities since final yr, finishing up assaults towards Afghan civilians in addition to foreigners and international pursuits.
Taliban fighters stand guard outdoors the hospital after a bomb blast in Mazar-e Sharif
Folks stand outdoors a hospital after a bomb blast in Mazar-e Sharif, the capital metropolis of Balkh province, in northern Afghanistan, Thursday, March 9, 2023
A number of assaults have rocked Balkh, together with in Mazar-i-Sharif final yr, some claimed by IS.
In January, a suicide bomber killed at the least 10 individuals when he blew himself up close to the international ministry in Kabul, in an assault claimed by IS.
The Taliban and IS share an austere Sunni Islamist ideology, however the latter are preventing to ascertain a world ‘caliphate’ as an alternative of the Taliban’s extra inward-looking objective of ruling an impartial Afghanistan.
A minimum of 5 Chinese language nationals had been wounded in December when gunmen stormed a resort standard with businesspeople in Kabul.
That raid was claimed by IS, as was an assault on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul in December that Islamabad denounced as an ‘assassination try’ towards its ambassador.
Two Russian embassy employees members had been killed in a suicide bombing outdoors their mission in September in one other assault claimed by IS.
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