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ISIS Bomb Targets Chinese Diplomats, Executives in Afghanistan
(Bloomberg) -- An Islamic State offshoot took credit for an attack at a Kabul hotel popular with Chinese diplomats and businessmen, the first attack targeting citizens from one of the few countries with good ties with the Taliban since the militant group seized power last year.
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Two armed members of the Islamic State-Khorasan, a local affiliate of the militant group operating in the Middle East, detonated explosive devices inside the Kabul Longan Hotel in a posh district of the Afghan capital Monday. The group claimed the suicide attack killed or wounded at least 30 people, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
A spokesman of Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, Zabihullah Mujahed, said two foreign nationals were injured while jumping from the hotel balcony and three assailants were killed after a gun battle with government forces.
China was “deeply shocked” by the attack, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. Chinese diplomats in the South Asian nation made serious representations with Afghanistan about the incident, he said, adding that Beijing supported the nation in countering terrorism.
This is the group’s third attack in the last few months hitting targets associated with nations that have friendly ties with the Taliban. Earlier this month there was an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in the country. In September, the group claimed an attack just outside the Russian embassy, which killed several people including a senior diplomat and a security guard.
The IS-K group is one of the Taliban’s most serious security threats, carrying out large-scale attacks in densely populated areas. Even before the Taliban took over the militant group was fighting it in an attempt to impose their even-harsher Islamic ideology and expand their influence in the region.
The attacks highlight the difficulties the Taliban faces to break its international isolation and draw in foreign investments to the country’s largely untapped mineral resources.
The militant group has limited diplomatic links with only seven countries, including Russia and China, but even those countries have not formally recognized its government.
--With assistance from Philip Glamann.
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