ISIS has claimed responsibility for two explosions at a peaceful demonstration in Afghanistan Saturday that killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds more. The Afghan government said at least 80 people were killed and 231 injured by a pair of suicide bombers who detonated explosives in the middle of a march by Afghanistan’s minority Hazara community in Kabul. The Hazaras are largely Shiite Muslim and considered apostates by ISIS.
Thousands of Hazara, the country’s third-largest minority community, were in the capital to put pressure on the Afghan government to route a planned electricity transmission line through Hazara communities in central Afghanistan. “Graphic television footage from the site of the attack showed many dead bodies lying on the bloodied road,” Reuters reports. “The attack succeeded despite tight security which saw much of the city center sealed off with stacks of shipping containers and other obstacles and helicopters patrolling overhead.”
“Afghan security officials said that while Kabul remained under constant insurgent threat, they had no prior intelligence on a particular threat to the protest,” the New York Times reports. “Saturday’s attack puts further pressure on President Ashraf Ghani’s struggling government.” The Taliban publicly condemned the attack.
