ISIS Says it Attacked Kabul Power Lines

World

October 23rd, 4:34am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Afghans line up outside a bank to take out their money after Taliban takeover in Kabul, Afghanistan September 1, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

ISIS group's Afghan branch on Friday said it was behind an explosion that brought down electricity lines and plunged Kabul into darkness. The power cut on Thursday was a further blow to Taliban efforts to stabilize Afghanistan two months after they seized control. In a statement published on its Telegram channels, ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) said "the soldiers of the caliphate detonated a bomb on an electricity pylon in Kabul" to damage the electricity sector. The explosion hit a high-voltage line supplying imported power to Kabul and some other provinces. Afghanistan is largely reliant on electricity imported from its northern neighbors Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, making cross-country power lines a prime target for insurgents. The Taliban has promised to fight ISIS-K but the group has continued to carry out devastating atrocities. Earlier this week, ISIS-K said it was behind a suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Kandahar on October 15 that killed 60 people.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3261806/isis-says-it-attacked-kabul-power-lines