The Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) has claimed responsibility for the earlier Monday attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul. The terror group has identified the suicide bomber as Waqas al Muhajir, according to the group’s Telegram channel.
Two embassy personnel and an Afghan civilian were killed in a suicide bombing near the embassy’s entrance in Kabul on Monday. At least ten people were hurt. According to local police, the attacker was shot dead by armed guards as he approached the gate, in one of the first such incidents since the Taliban took power last year.
‘The suicide attacker was recognised and shot by Russian embassy (Taliban) guards before reaching the target… there is no information about casualties yet,’ Mawlawi Sabir, the head of the police district where the attack took place, told Reuters. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, an unknown militant detonated an explosive device near the embassy’s consular section around 10.50 a.m.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the ‘terrorist act,’ calling it ‘absolutely unacceptable’. Peskov stated in his daily press conference that ‘the main thing that needs to be done now is to get information from the ground about what happened to our diplomatic representatives’. Following the attack, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that security at the embassy has been increased, and that ‘additional forces of the Taliban authorities’ have been deployed.
‘Let us hope that the organisers and perpetrators of this terrorist act are punished,’ Lavrov said. Despite its recognition of the Taliban government, Russia is one of the few countries that has kept an embassy in Kabul since the militant organisation took over the country a year ago. Moreover, Moscow has been in talks with Taliban officials over an agreement to supply gasoline and other commodities.
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