At least seven dead, six injured as blast rips through bus in northern Afghanistan
At least seven people have been killed and six others sustained injuries after a roadside bomb explosion ripped through a bus carrying the employees of a petroleum company in Afghanistan’s northern province of Balkh.
Asif Waziri, a provincial police spokesman, said the blast took place at around 7:00 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Tuesday near Sayed Abad Square in the provincial capital city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
“The bomb was placed in a cart by the roadside. It was detonated as the bus arrived,” he added.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
Earlier this month, at least 19 people were killed and 24 others wounded after a powerful explosion struck a religious school in Afghanistan’s northern province of Samangan.
A doctor in the provincial capital city of Aybak, situated about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital Kabul, told AFP news agency at the time that most of the dead and wounded were children and ordinary people.
Abdul Nafay Takor, spokesman of the Afghan Interior Ministry, wrote in a tweet back then that security authorities were investigating the various aspects of the incident and working to identify the perpetrators.
“Our detective and security forces are working quickly to identify the perpetrators of this unforgivable crime and punish them for their actions,” he noted.
Also, a roadside bomb blew up on a busy avenue in Kabul on November 14, wounding two people.
The Taliban spokesman for Kabul police, who goes by the single name Mobin, said the bomb detonated as a taxi was passing by in the Kota-e Sangi district of western Kabul.
Witnesses said the casualties were a woman in the taxi and a man passing by.
The blast came two days after a bomb exploded in a mini-bus in another part of western Kabul, killing at least one person and wounding five others.
Deadly explosions targeting civilians have been a recurrent theme of daily life in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has claimed responsibility for most of the acts of terror.
In September, at least 54 people, including 51 young women and girls, were killed in a bombing at a hall in Kabul where students were taking a science test for university entrance. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Taliban later blamed Daesh and said it had killed several key figures linked to the blast.
In May 2021, at least 85 people, most of whom girls, were killed and about 300 others injured in three bomb blasts near their school.
