Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 30, 2017
Two security guards have been killed in a suicide attack on a lawmaker’s house in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, local officials say.
Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the morning of August 30 outside of parliament deputy Haji Zahir Qadir’s house in Jalalabad, the provincial capital. Another attacker was shot and killed by the guards.
One guard was also wounded in the attack, Khogyani said.
Provincial council member Iftikhar Momand said a third attacker was taken into custody by security forces.
Momand also said that Qadir was inside his house at the time of the attack but was unharmed.
Amaq, a news outlet affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State (IS), published news of the attack, but it was not clear whether IS claimed responsibility, dpa news agency reported.
Qadir, a former deputy speaker of parliament, is considered an opponent of the Taliban and IS, both of which operate in Nangarhar Province.
In December 2015, militia fighters loyal to him were said to have beheaded four IS militants and displayed their severed heads on the side of a road in retaliation for the beheading of four militia members.
A U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States — carried out by Al-Qaeda, whose leaders were harbored by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
But the government is struggling to beat back insurgents in the wake of the exit of most NATO forces in 2014.
A U.S. report found earlier this year that the Taliban controls or contests control of about 40 percent of the country, and security forces are also fighting against militants affiliated with IS.
With reporting by Khaama Press, Reuters, AP, and dpa
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