Deadly Explosion Claims Life of Taliban Leader in Northern Afghanistan

The governor of northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province was killed along with two others in an explosion in his office Thursday, police said.

“Today, at about 9 am, an explosion occurred inside the second floor of the governor’s office, due to the explosion, which killed (governor) Mawlawi Muhammad Daoud Muzammil and two civilians,” Balkh police spokesman Muhammad Asif Waziri said.

“Two people, including Muhammad Daoud Muzammil, governor of Balkh, were killed in an explosion this morning,” local police spokesman Asif Waziri told AFP, adding that the explosion took place on the second floor of his office in the provincial capital, Mazar. -i- sheriff.

“It was a suicide attack. We have no information on how the suicide bomber reached the governor’s office,” he said, adding that two people were also wounded.

Khairuddin, who was injured in the accident, said that the explosion occurred moments after the governor arrived at his office, and at a hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif.

“There was a sound. I fell to the ground,” he told AFP, adding that he saw a friend lose his hand in the blast.

Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that Muzammil was “martyred in an explosion at the hands of the enemies of Islam”.

Muzammil was initially appointed governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar, where he led the fight against ISIS terrorists, before being transferred to Balkh last year.

A government statement said he met on Wednesday with the two deputy prime ministers and other senior officials visiting Balkh to review a major irrigation project in northern Afghanistan.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, but fingers have been pointed at the terrorist group ISIS, which has carried out a series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan in recent months, some on civilian targets and others on Taliban security forces.

Violence across Afghanistan has decreased dramatically since the Taliban took control, but the security situation has deteriorated again with deadly ISIS attacks.