Taliban official: Blast in Shiite area of Kabul kills 19

Abdul Nafi Takor, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the blast was in the early morning but was unable to provide more details.

Kabul: A Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kabul police chief says 19 people were killed and 27 were wounded in a suicide bombing in a Shiite area of the Afghan capital. Khalid Zadran, the spokesman, says the explosion in the Dashti Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul took place on Friday morning. The area is populated mostly by members of Afghanistan's minority Shiite community.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Islamic State group the chief rival of the Taliban since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 has in the past targeted the Hazara community. (AP)