Afghanistan: Taliban governor of Balkh province killed in blast

• The Taliban governor of Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province killed in blast.
• Mohammad Dawood Muzammil was the highest-ranking Taliban official.
• The explosion occurred on the second floor of the governor’s office.

The Taliban governor of Afghanistan‘s northern Balkh province was assassinated by the Islamic State (IS) group in a suicide attack.

On Thursday, Mohammad Dawood Muzammil was assassinated in his office in Mazar-e Sharif, the provincial capital.

He is the highest-ranking Taliban official to be assassinated since the militants retook power in 2021.

The level of violence has since dropped dramatically, but pro-Taliban figures have been targeted by IS.

According to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Twitter, “martyred in an explosion by the enemies of Islam”.

Muzammil previously served as governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar, where he led the fight against IS. He was transferred to Balkh in October of last year.

According to Balkh police spokesperson Mohammed Asif Waziri, the explosion occurred on the second floor of the governor’s office on Thursday morning.

“There was a bang. I fell on the ground,” Khairuddin, who was injured in the blast, spoke to AFP. He stated that he witnessed a friend lose a hand in the explosion.

Later that day, IS claimed that one of its soldiers had entered the building and detonated his suicide belt. The blast also killed some security guards, according to the statement.

The provincial Taliban authorities had said the day before that they had killed eight “rebels and kidnappers” in Mazar-e Sharif.

The Taliban were deposed as Afghanistan’s rulers in 2001, but the militant Islamist group swept back to power in August 2021, following the withdrawal of US-led forces.

Since then, a series of deadly bomb blasts have primarily targeted mosques and minority communities, many of which have been claimed by the regional affiliate of the militant Islamic State (IS-K) group, which is a bitter rival of the Taliban.

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