Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Monday a car bomb killed a provincial police chief and his two guards.
The Islamic State terror group's Afghan affiliate, IS-Khorasan, took responsibility for the bombing in Fayzabad, the capital of the northeastern Badakhshan province.
A spokesperson for the Taliban-led interior ministry in the Afghan capital, Kabul, told VOA the slain police official was traveling to work when an explosives-laden car targeted his vehicle.
Abdul Nafi Takoor said the ensuing blast also injured two people. He added that security forces had taken four suspects into custody in connection with the attack and blamed so-called "enemies of Afghanistan" for being behind it, without elaborating.
Badakhshan borders Pakistan, Tajikistan and China.
IS-Khorasan has intensified terrorist attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban reclaimed power in the war-ravaged country in August 2021. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including Afghan minority Shiite community members and prominent pro-Taliban clerics, in recent months.
The ruling Islamist group claims that its counterterrorism forces have significantly degraded the presence of IS-Khorasan in Afghanistan, but critics question those claims citing frequent high-profile attacks by the group in Kabul and beyond.
