IS claims killing of Taliban official in Afghanistan

KABUL: A regional branch of the Islamic State group has claimed a rare deadly attack on a Taliban official in northeastern Afghanistan, a monitoring group said.

The head of the information and culture department in Badakhshan, Zabihullah Amiri, was shot dead Tuesday while en route to the provincial capital Faizabad.

The Islamic State-Khorasan group said Wednesday it carried out the attack.

“The soldiers of the Caliphate targeted a commander from the apostate Taliban militia… with machine guns, killing him along with one of his guards,” it said in a statement quoted by monitoring organisation SITE Intelligence Group.

Amiri was a nephew of Amanuddin Mansur, the governor of southern Helmand province.

Afghanistan’s information and culture ministry said one of the assailants was killed and a second arrested after the “cowardly attack”.

The ministry “reminds the enemies of the Islamic government that such cowardly acts will never weaken our firm resolve and steadfast determination”, it said Tuesday.

Taliban officials have vowed to restore security to Afghanistan, but sporadic attacks remain since they returned to power in 2021.

The regional branch of the Islamic State group has claimed some of them, including an explosion at a Chinese restaurant in central Kabul that killed at least seven people in January.

The group also claimed responsibility for a December 2024 suicide bombing in Kabul that killed refugees minister Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani.