The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) chapter formally took responsibility for a fatal bombing outside a bank in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on February 11 that claimed the lives of eight individuals. The terrorist organization said in a statement on February 12 that the attack was specifically intended to hit Taliban employees meeting to collect their salaries.
The catastrophe occurred when a suicide bomber remotely blew up a device at the door of a government bank in the northern capital. The five people killed in the initial report were later reported to have died by the Afghan interior ministry who confirmed eight people lost their lives.
In its announcement, ISKP detailed how the bomber had “detonated his explosive vest” among Taliban employees outside the bank. Though eight were confirmed dead according to Taliban authorities, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) said there were many more dead, reporting that at least “tens” had been killed in the attack.
The UNSC condemned the attack, saying, “Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is one of the most pernicious threats to peace and security in Afghanistan, and indeed globally.” The council called for accountability against anyone who practices such acts of violence.
Ground reports tend to discover discrepancies in figures of casualties as reported by Taliban officials and those given out by local authorities. In a similar incident in March last year, ISKP targeted Taliban members near a bank in Kandahar where the Taliban reported three fatalities and hospital sources asserted that 20 died.
ISKP has also mounted a series of high-profile attacks, such as a December 2024 suicide bombing that murdered Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban regime’s refugee minister, in Kabul.
