Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Jalalabad Bank Bombing

Terrorists launched a suicide bomb attack on the Jalalabad branch of Kabul Bank Saturday April 18th, killing 35 and wounding over 100. Eyewitnesses report that the bomber was a man on a motorcycle who drove up near a line of people waiting to collect their salaries at the bank. Victims included many local government officials, and is the largest attack in Jalalabad in many months.

Another bomb was detonated near a shrine, but there were no injuries from the attack. A third bomb was planted outside the National Bank of Afghanistan, but was safely detonated by police. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani traveled to the Badakhshan province and publicly condemned the “cowardly and heinous” attack.

There was an earlier bombing on the same bank branch in Jalalabad back in 2011, when Taliban bombers detonated themselves in the Kabul Bank during a payday. However, the Taliban denied responsibility for Saturday’s attack. Eastern Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid disavowed the Taliban’s involvement in the bomb attack.

President Ashraf Ghani, however, did claim that Islamic State was behind the attack. This statement was corroborated by a statement from Wilayat Khorasan, a group linked to Islamic State, claiming responsibility for the attack and identifying the bomber as Abu Mohammad Khorasani. Shahidullah Shahid, a former spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban who defected to Islamic State last year, also made a statement to reporters that Islamic State had carried out the attack.

If Islamic State did indeed carry out the bombing, then it is the largest attack they have performed outside of territory they control in Iraq and Syria.

Back in January, Free Fire Blog reported on the expansion of Islamic State into Central Asia, exploiting the rift between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban to gain support in the region, as well as recruiting Turkic rebels such as Uighurs into Islamic State.

In February, General John F. Campbell, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, described Islamic State as a rising threat in the country and referred to a Islamic State deputy emir Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim being killed in a drone strike three days prior to his testimony before the U.S. Senate.