One person was killed and at least three wounded in a suicide attack on the Afghan ministry of urban development and housing on Thursday, a Taliban government spokesman said. "The suicide attacker wanted to enter the ministry and one of the mujahideen (security forces) shot him and then in the result of the explosion another person near him was killed and three injured," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told. 

Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the Taliban surged back to power and ended their insurgency in 2021, but the Islamic State (IS) group frequently stages gun and bomb attacks challenging their rule. A doctor from Kabul's Emergency Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that "five to six injured have been brought" to the facility after the blast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's attack. 

However, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed the Taliban government's minister for refugees, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, inside his Kabul office in December. On Wednesday, the group also claimed an attack on a north Afghanistan bank that killed eight people, saying it had targeted Taliban government employees collecting their salaries. Six civilians were also killed in an IS-claimed attack in 2023 that took place near the Taliban government's heavily fortified foreign ministry. 

The Taliban government has declared security its highest priority since returning to power and analysts say they have had some success quashing IS with a sweeping crackdown. However, the group remains active, targeting Taliban officials, visitors from abroad and foreign diplomats. There are often discrepancies between the casualty tolls given by Taliban authorities and those reported by officials on the ground, and attack sites are routinely shut down by security forces.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)