Islamic State kills 41 in attack on Afghan cultural centre
KABUL — An Islamic State suicide bomber struck a Shiite cultural centre in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 41 people and underscoring the extremist group’s growing reach in Afghanistan even as its self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria has been dismantled.
The attack may have targeted the pro-Iran Afghan Voice news agency housed in the two-story building. The Sunni extremists of IS view Shiite Muslims as apostates and have repeatedly attacked Afghanistan’s Shiite minority and targets linked to neighbouring Iran.
The attack wounded more than 80 people, many of whom suffered severe burns.
Local Shiite leader Abdul Hussain Ramazandada said the bomber slipped into an academic seminar at the centre and blew himself up among the participants. More bombs went off just outside the centre as people fled.