An Afghan intelligence operative, a foreigner and her three children were killed in a bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan Friday, officials said.
The incident happened in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan.
A provincial spokesman, Ataullah Khogyani, told VOA that the Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS), had detained a “Russian speaking” foreign woman and her three children, suspecting them of having links to militants.
He said that while the detainees were being transported in a vehicle to the NDS office so they could be interrogated and properly searched by female police, the woman detonated explosives strapped to her body.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility either from the Taliban insurgency, or pro-Islamic State (IS) militants who have allegedly set up strong bases in remote districts of Nangarhar.
Locally referred to as Daesh (the Arabic acronym for IS), the extremist group is blamed for conducting some of the recent terrorist attacks in the Afghan border province. Local reports say U.S. drones as well as Afghan ground forces have repeatedly attacked its bases in the region, killing dozens of IS fighters.
The Islamic State group controls large areas in Iraq and Syria, and concerns are growing the terrorist group is slowly expanding influence in Afghanistan. There have also been deadly clashes between Taliban and IS militants in recent days.
