The latest: An explosion took place at the Balkh provincial authority in northern Balkh province on Thursday, and killed the Taliban’s governor of the province and injured many others, as per reports.
Go deeper:
- The explosion occurred around 10am on Thursday at the Balkh governor’s office grounds and killed at least four people.
- Mohammad Dawood Muzammil was killed in the explosion, along with his two body guards, confirmed Mohammad Asif Waziri, spokesman for the Taliban’s Security Command in Balkh
- According to Waziri, the blast occurred during an administrative meeting.
- Sources in Balkh province said that the roads leading to the blast site were blocked.
- The type of explosion is unknown and no person or group has claimed responsibility.
- Muzammil was a member of Noorzai tribe. He hailed from Dagoo area in Greask district Helmand. He made a name for himself fighting against British forces in 2003-2004 in Helmand. Fought against ISKP in east and had been appointed in-charge of North and North-eastern Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, in another development, at around 8am today, an explosion also occurred in Kabul’s fifth district, the details of which are not yet known.
- Residents in Kabul’s Qambar, Khoshal Khan area in PD5 report an explosion in the area. Taliban security forces have closed down the road. Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for Kabul police headquarters, said the blast was caused by a mine blast at a crossroads, but caused no casualties.
Zoom out: This comes even as this is the second time, a high-ranking Taliban official has been killed.
- In December 2022, a car blast in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province killed three people, including the provincial police chief, the Taliban’s interior ministry had said.
- The December 26 attack took place in the morning near the regional police headquarters in Faizabad, the province’s capital and largest city.
- The ministry’s spokesman, Abdul Nafi Takur, had said that soon after four suspects had been arrested in connection.
- No group had claimed responsibility for the car bombing, which the interior ministry said killed regional police chief Abdulhaq Abu Omar. Omar had been the highest Taliban security official to be slain since the hard-line Islamist group seized power in August 2021.
- However, the Taliban-led government has dealt with a continuous stream of violence since returning to power. Some attacks, including in Afghanistan’s north, have been attributed to the extremist group Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K).
