Afghans help a man who was injured in a deadly explosion that struck a protest march by ethnic Hazaras, in Kabul.
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IS claimed the bombings in a statement carried by its affiliated Amaq news agency, calling it an attack on Shias.
Until now, the Middle Eastern-based Islamic State has been active mainly in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, while the domestic Taliban insurgency has carried out numerous bombings and other attacks in the capital.
The explicit reference to the Hazara’s Shia religious affiliation also represents a menacing departure for Afghanistan, where the bloody rivalry between Sunni and Shia typical of Iraq has been relatively rare, despite decades of war. He said that three city district police chiefs were injured and another three security personnel were killed.
They said three bombers were involved in the attack.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said that 81 people had been killed and 231 wounded in the bombing.
Protest leaders have said that the rerouting was evidence of bias against the Hazara community, which accounts for up to 15% of Afghanistan’s estimated 30 million people.
He said the Obama administration had offered assistance to the Afghan government in its investigation of the attack and prosecution of the culprits. “There was no one to help”.
Taliban militants denied any involvement.
Much of the city centre was sealed off with stacks of shipping containers and other obstacles and security was tight with helicopters patrolling overhead but there was no violence.
Sources say at least 80 people have been killed, 230 are wounded.
Dr. Waheed Majroeh, the head of worldwide relations for the Ministry of Public Health, says Saturday that 207 people were also wounded by the blast, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.
It was the deadliest attack in Afghanistan for months.
“Our condolences go out to those who are affected by today’s attack”, Nicholson says in a statement issued by the Resolute Support mission in Kabul on Saturday.
The United States and Russian Federation condemned the attack and renewed pledges of security assistance to Kabul. It added that the US and “the worldwide community stand firm in our ongoing support for the people and Government of Afghanistan”. “Afghanistan in fighting all forms of terrorism”, Russian news agencies quoted a Kremlin statement as saying.
Thousands of people from Afghanistan’s Hazara minority demonstrated in the capital Kabul on Saturday to demand changes to the route of a planned multi-million dollar power transmission line. But the resentment felt by many Hazaras runs deeper than simple questions of energy supply.
In November, thousands of Hazara marched through Kabul to protest at government inaction after seven members of their community were beheaded by Islamist militants and several protesters briefly tried to force their way into the presidential palace.
The government had received intelligence that an attack could take place, and had warned the march organizers, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told The Associated Press. The original plan routed the line through Bamiyan province, in the central highlands, where most of the country’s Hazaras live.
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The 500-kilovolt TUTAP power line, which would connect the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with electricity-hungry Afghanistan and Pakistan, was originally set to pass through the central province.
