The Islamic State group of Khorasan branch, also known as ISIS-K, has claimed the responsibility for a suicide attack on a Chinese restaurant in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The explosion occurred at about 3 p.m. local time on Monday, on January 19th.
The Taliban authorities have confirmed casualties in the bomb blast, confirming that seven people, including one Chinese national, have been killed and 13 others were wounded. In a statement published by ISSS Amark news agency, the group said a suicide bomber entered a Chinese restaurant in Shahr-e-Naw and detonated explosives among Chinese nationals and their guards.
ISSK claimed the attack killed and wounded Chinese citizens, Afghan citizens, and Taliban members guarding the site. Without providing evidence, the group said the total number of dead and wounded around 25. The statement said that Chinese nationals were targeted over what the group described as China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Earlier, Afghanistan’s local presidencies reported that the incident was a suicide attack.
Taliban officials says that the Chinese national killed in the blast was a Muslim from Chinese Xinjiang region, identified as Abdul Rahman. Video obtained by the news agencies shows the blast destroyed the signboard and parts of the Chinese restaurant China Lanzhou Beef Noodle in the Shahr-e-Naw neighborhood of Kabul.
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Hospital said at least 20 people were brought to the facility following the blast. The hospital sources claims that several patients were being treated for surgery with cuts and bruises, adding that seven people were already dead when they arrived at the hospital. At least five eyewitnesses from the site have confirmed the local Afghan press news agencies that Chinese nationals were particularly the target of the attack.
Whereas Chinese China’s embassy in Tajikistan warned on Monday that security conditions along the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border are extremely dire and complex following a recent clash. It urged Chinese citizens to leave the border areas as soon as possible. China shares a 76-kilometer border with Afghanistan and has close ties with the Afghan Taliban government.
Chinese visitors frequently visit the area and have been visiting this area since the group took control over Afghanistan in 2021. Despite Taliban’s promises to restore the security in the country, bombs and bomb attacks have continued in the country, many of them claimed by the local terrorist organizations.
