KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 (UPI) — The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a pair of bombs that exploded in the capital of Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least 24 and injuring 91 others.
The explosion of a remote-controlled bomb near the Ministry of Defense compound in Kabul was followed by a suicide bombing.
The detonation of the second set of explosives was a deliberate attempt to kill emergency personnel who had arrived at the site of the initial explosion — a tactic commonly employed by the Taliban and other terrorist organizations.
Several of the victims included security forces and rescue team members. A Kabul police chief was killed in the attack.
The fundamentalist Muslim movement and government-turned terrorist group known as the Taliban emerged in Afghanistan in the 1990s. They began as a resistance movement against Soviet occupation before expelling the Russians and founding an extremist Islamic state in the mountainous nation.
U.S. forces and their allies overthrew the Taliban government in 2001, but the militant group continues to wage guerilla war, attacking soldiers, politicians and civilians.
According to CNN, an increase in Taliban-executed violence in Afghanistan is a sign of a changing of the guard within the Taliban’s leadership hierarchy, as a younger, more militant generation assumes control of the group.
New leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada has promised to “bring back the era of Mullah Omar” with “a simple life, loyalty, and terror on enemies.”
