Grenade explosion in Afghanistan’s capital kills 2 people and wounds 12 in Shiite neighborhood

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A grenade explosion in Afghanistan’s capital killed two people and wounded 12 in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul on Thursday, a police spokesman said. It was the second deadly blast in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in less than a week.

The explosion occurred outside a commercial center in mid-afternoon. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan has repeatedly targeted Dasht-e-Barchi.

A resident and member of the Shiite community in Dasht-e-Barchi, Said Aqeel Rezayi, saw ambulances carrying the injured from the scene.

He said people in the community had been happy about the Taliban takeover in 2021, thinking they would be safe from such attacks.

“But for the past two-and-a-half years our people have been killed again and again,” he told The Associated Press. “We are worried about our lives and what will happen to us. Who should we complain to? Why are we being killed?”

Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said security forces would do their best to bring the assailants to justice.

On Jan. 7, the IS group claimed responsibility for a minibus explosion a day earlier that killed at least five people in Dasht-e-Barchi.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan wants greater protection for the country’s minority Shiite community.

The IS group has carried out major assaults on schools, hospitals and mosques, also attacking other Shiite areas across the country in the last few years.