Afghanistan bomb blast: 4 killed, 5 injured as suicide bomber targets Taliban splinter group run by Mullah Rasoul

5 people were killed whereas 4 others were wounded in a suicide bombing that targeted Taliban splinter-group in Gereshk. The suicide car bomber targeted members of Taliban splinter group run by Mullah Rasoul in Gereshk district, Helmand, Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, a deadly suicide truck bomb attack in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter had killed nearly 90 people apart from wounding more than 300 hundreds. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency had blamed the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network with direct help from Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

The Taliban—currently in the midst of their annual “spring offensive”—denied they were involved, while strongly condemning the blast. The insurgent group rarely claims responsibility for attacks that kill large numbers of civilians.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for several recent bombings in the Afghan capital, including a powerful blast targeting a NATO convoy that killed eight people earlier this year.

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Amnesty International had said the bombing displayed that the conflict in Afghanistan is “dangerously widening in a way that should alarm the international community”. Germany was forced to postpone a scheduled deportation flight of rejected Afghan asylum-seekers in the wake of the attack.

Afghan troops are backed by US and NATO forces, and the White House is considering sending thousands more soldiers to break the deadlock in the battle against the Taliban.

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US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 now, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies. They mainly serve in an advisory capacity—a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago.