According to the latest Afghan police report, eight people were killed and 18 injured today in a bomb blast on a shopping street in Kabul’s Shiite neighborhood.

“Security teams are trying to identify those responsible” for the attack, police spokesman Khalid Zadran said of a bomb that went off inside a vegetable cart on a busy shopping street in the area in western Kabul.

The spokesman added that some of the victims were “in critical condition.”

The jihadist organization Islamic State claimed responsibility for the explosion, as the organization announced on its channel on the Telegram platform.

His statement said that 20 people were killed and injured in the attack, which took place in the western Kabul area.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan unequivocally condemns this cowardly act, which is the work of those who are enemies of Islam and the country,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a Twitter post.

The predominantly Hazara Shiite community, which makes up between 10 and 20% of Afghanistan’s population of nearly 40 million, has long been persecuted in the predominantly Sunni country.

Source: RES-IPE