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On November 2nd, at least two explosions followed by the sound of gunfire were heard close to the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan military hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul.
Photographs shared by residents showed a plume of smoke over the area of the blasts.
No comment was initially available from Taliban officials and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
According to local TV channels, citing eyewitnesses, another explosion followed. A group of suicide bombers entered the building, and a firefight broke out with the Taliban forces.
The information about the explosions was confirmed by the representative of the Taliban movement Bilal Karimi.
In August this year, amid the withdrawal of the US military from the region, the Taliban captured all major cities and declared the end of the twenty-year war. In September, they formed an interim government headed by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, who served as foreign minister during the first Taliban government and is under UN sanctions.
After the withdrawal of American troops, terrorist attacks organized by IS have become more frequent in the country. So, in early October, an explosion near the Kabul Mosque Idgah killed 12 people, and another 32 were injured.
In the same month, two more explosions thundered near mosques – in the provinces of Kandahar (42 people were killed) and Kunduz (120 dead). So far, no one has claimed responsibility for organizing these attacks.
In recent days, there’s been reports that former security officers that fought on behalf of the previous Afghan government joined the ranks of ISIS-K, Afghanistan’s Islamic State offshoot and are fighting against the Taliban.
According to a Wall Street Journal’s report, members of the intelligence body of the previous government in Afghanistan are now affiliating with ISIS-K in order to survive and resist the Taliban.
According to the publication, the former security personnel is mostly US-trained Afghan spies who have been joining the terror group in northern Afghanistan.
After the Taliban takeover, northern resistance was the only resisting group that was co-led by Ahmad Masoud and former first vice president Amrullah Saleh in Panjshri province.
Afghanistan has been witnessing a spike in targeted assassinations and bomb blasts.
In October, the Taliban claimed to have dismantled a Daesh hideout in the capital Kabul, blamed for many attacks.
According to Anadolu Agency, the group claimed a massive suicide bombing in Kandahar, besides orchestrating targeted killings in Nangarhar and Parwan provinces as well as a massive suicide bombing in a Shia community mosque in the northern Kunduz province, killing more than 100 people.
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