Jalalabad, Afghanistan - The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack Saturday that killed 33 people and wounded more than 100 others in eastern Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani said, in what appears to be the first major attack by the jihadists in the country.
Ghani's government has repeatedly raised the ominous prospect of IS making inroads into Afghanistan, though the group that has captured swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq has never formally acknowledged having a presence in Afghanistan.
On Saturday a suicide bomber killed 33 people and wounded 115 others outside a bank in the city of Jalalabad as government officials were collecting their salaries, in the deadliest attack since November.
The scene of the bombing showed the gruesome scale of the carnage with victims lying in pools of blood and body parts scattered across the ground.
"Who claimed responsibility for horrific attack in Nangarhar today? The Taliban did not claim responsibility for the attack, Daesh (IS) claimed responsibility," Ghani said on a visit to northeastern Badakhshan province.
AFP
