Afghanistan: Five medical personnel killed in attack on Taliban vehicle

The Afghan defense ministry said five people were killed in an attack on a vehicle in western Afghanistan this week. The attack also left several others injured.

A spokesperson for the Taliban-backed defense ministry said Thursday that armed men attacked a vehicle that was carrying military medical personnel employed by the Taliban. Five of the personnel were killed, and several others were injured, with the Islamic State militant group claiming responsibility for the incident.

“This morning, unknown armed men attacked a…vehicle carrying medical personnel of the 207th Al-Farooq Army Corps,” said spokesperson Enayatullah Khowrazmi, referring to the Taliban unit based in the Herat in western Afghanistan.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on the Telegram messaging platform. The group has claimed responsibility for other attacks in the country even as the insurgent group claimed to focus on securing Afghanistan since retaking control in August last year.

The latest attack in Herat follows previous incidents that took place in the province. A blast hit a mosque in the province back in September, killing 18 people, including a pro-Taliban cleric. In July, two security force members were killed in an attack on a vehicle of the same military unit.

Previously, a spokesperson for the insurgent group said Saturday that security forces killed six members of Islamic State during an overnight raid in the capital Kabul. Those who were killed in their hideout were involved in two major attacks in Afghanistan in recent weeks, such as the city mosque and the education center that killed dozens of female students.

“They were the attackers of the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque and also…of Kaaj Institute,” said spokesperson Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, who added that one Taliban security member was also killed during the raid.

The blast at the Kaaj Institute education center on September 30 killed 53 people, most of which are girls and young women. The attack on the mosque on September 23 killed at least seven people and wounded 40 others in the fortified Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood that was once the “Green Zone” of embassies and foreign military bases.