Explosion wrecks checkpoint, many feared dear, injured

Up to 10 people are feared dead after a bomb explosion near a checkpoint at a military airport in Afghanistan‘s capital city Kabul. 

Another eight people are thought to have been seriously injured in the blast.

It is the first deadly blast of 2023 in Afghanistan, less than a day into the New Year, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.

However, the regional affiliate of the so-called Islamic State group – known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province – has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.

The military airport is around 200 metres from the civilian airport and close to the Interior Ministry, itself the site of a suicide bombing last October that killed at least four people.

Taliban security commander Abdul Mubin Safi, in Takhar, confirmed the explosion and claimed a bomb was placed under a local administrative employee’s desk, The Khaama Press reported. 

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the blast left several people dead and wounded.

He gave no exact figures or further information about the bombing, saying details of an investigation will be shared later.

Although Taliban security forces prevented photography and filming directly at the blast site, the checkpoint appeared damaged but intact.

It is on Airport Road, which leads to high-security neighbourhoods housing government ministries, foreign embassies and the presidential palace.

A spokesman for the Kabul police chief, Khalid Zadran, was not immediately available for comment.

It comes after the Taliban banned girls from primary school, effectively banning all women from education across Afghanistan

At a Kabul gathering with school directors on Wednesday, the Taliban also banned female staff – including teachers.

This decision has closed off one of the only professions that remained open to women in the country, which has become more extremist since the hard-line movement took power last year.