ISLAMABAD: The Daesh group has claimed responsibility for a bombing over the weekend at a cultural center run by the minority Shiite community in northern Afghanistan that killed one person and wounded eight people.
The Tabian center of the Hazaras in Balkh’s provincial capital, Mazar-e-Sharif, was struck on Saturday, during an event honoring local journalists.
The regional affiliate of Daesh — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — is a key rival of the Taliban and has frequently targeted members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority. The militant group has increased its attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021. Daesh attacks have also included Taliban patrols.
Daesh said in a statement posted on its media arm, the Aamaq news agency, that the explosives were planted in a bag that was left hidden at the center. The statements said those targeted work for an establishment “that engaged in war” against Daesh.
Abdul Nafi Takor, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the interior ministry said the person killed was a security guard at the center.
Three children were among the eight wounded.
The attack on the center came two days after a bombing in Mazar-e-Sharif killed the provincial governor, Daud Muzmal, and two others. Four people were wounded.
The Daesh group also claimed responsibility for that assassination on Thursday.
Daesh claims bombing at Shiite center in northern Afghanistan
https://arab.news/wwzyk
Daesh claims bombing at Shiite center in northern Afghanistan
- The militant group has increased its attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
