According to official reports, the acting governor of an Afghan province has been killed by a suicide bomber on Tuesday, June 6, a few months after the region’s police chief was killed in an identical attack by the Islamic State group.
In as much as security has been reported to have improved significantly since the Taliban took over power from the US in August 2021, the Islamic State, IS, still remains a considerable threat.
Reports have confirmed that the suicide bomber had driven a car laden with explosives into the vehicle carrying Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, who had been the deputy governor of northern Badakhshan before he stepped up as acting governor last month — in the provincial capital Faizabad.
The driver has been confirmed dead, with six others sustaining wounds from the attack.
The Taliban and IS share a struct Sunni Islamist ideology but the latter group is fighting to establish a global caliphate instead of the Taliban’s more restrained aim of ruling an independent Afghanistan alone.
IS has murdered and wounded hundreds of people in attacks since the Taliban government returned to power. Some of the attacks have targeted foreigners, a move aimed at undermining the Taliban government.