Officials on Saturday said there were two suicide bombers wearing explosive-packed clothing.
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“Two fighters from Islamic State detonated explosive belts at a gathering of Shiites in the city of Kabul in Afghanistan”, the militant group’s Amaq news agency reported.
“This heinous attack was made all the more despicable by the fact that it targeted a peaceful demonstration”, the White House said in a statement.
Afghans look at property left behind by victims of an explosion that struck a protest march, that is displayed on a large representation of the Afghan. The protesters called for justice for the beheadings, chanting slogans seeking death for the Taliban and ISIS.
The commander of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation armed forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, condemns the bomb attack on a protest march in Kabul that killed at least 61 people. 61 people were killed and 207 have been wounded, IS claims responsibility for suicide Attack.
The attack represents a major escalation for the IS group, which so has largely been confined to the eastern province of Nangarhar.
“I promise you, I will take revenge against the culprits”, Ghani said during a live televised address Saturday.
Leaders of the marches have said the rerouting was evidence of bias against the Hazara community.
ISIS is claiming responsibility for killing dozens of people during a peaceful demonstration by a minority group in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday.
An Interior Ministry statement said 80 people had been killed and 231 wounded, with local hospitals straining to cope with those being brought in. The Hazaras are Shiite Muslims, most Afghans are Sunnis.
An Amnesty report in May said the number of internally displaced Afghans has reached 1.2 million.
Officials saw the Islamic State’s first assault on the Afghan capital as retaliation for operations by Afghan ground forces and USA airstrikes that have intensified in recent weeks, targeting the group’s stronghold in eastern Nangarhar province.
Officials are working to determine who is behind the attack, but if the ISIS claim is verified, it would be the first such ISIS attack in Kabul, according to USA Today.
The power project Hazaras were protesting is known as the TUTAP line, which is held by the Asian Development Bank and includes Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
They are seen as the poorest of the country’s ethnic groups, and often make complaints of discrimination.
They have also risked exacerbating ethnic tensions with other groups and provinces the government says would have to wait up to three years for power if the route were changed.
Indeed, throughout much of the war the Hazara-dominated provinces in central Afghanistan were simply ignored by the Taliban, who mostly just worked around those regions.
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Many feared violence at what was considered as the second protest by Hazaras over the power line problem.
