Foreign Affairs

Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Multiple Deadly Explosions Targeting Medics And Journalists In Kabul

Cock_fighting_in_رAfghanistan | Circa February 2008 | By Nasim Fekrat from Kabul, Afghanistan (Cock fighting in Bagh Babur مرغ جنگی در باغ بابر) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for two bombs that exploded in a heavily Shiite neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, and left at least 20 dead and 70 others wounded Wednesday.

The attacks, apparently targeting emergency services and journalists, occurred in Dasht-e-Barchi, a neighborhood home to the Shiite Muslim Hazara ethnic minority, which has been targeted repeatedly in the past by ISIS, Reuters reported.

The first blast came when a suicide bomber detonated inside a wrestling training center and the second came moments after from a nearby car bomb.

In the first attack, the suicide bomber fatally shot a guard of the gym where spectators were watching a wrestling match, and then proceeded to blow himself up, officials told The Washington Post.

The second attack hit and killed a reporter and a cameraman from a local news station who had just arrived to do a live report from the scene, according to the report, and four other crew members from the station, Tolo News, were also injured.

These attacks are among a string of other deadly strikes in the region this year, and it’s proving to be one of the deadliest years since 2009 for noncombatants in Afghanistan, according to a U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report.

Between Jan. 1 and June 30 about 1,700 noncombatants have been killed in Afghanistan.

This twin attack mirrors one from April, when at least nine journalists died from explosions at a high security zone in Kabul.

The Islamic State also claimed responsibility for those attacks.

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