Kabul suicide bomber kills 6, wounds 20

Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Six people died and 20 were others wounded in Kabul in a suicide bombing near where protesters had gathered Monday afternoon close to the presidential palace.

Afghanistan's Tolo News reported that hundreds of protesters had come to the busy area throughout the day to protest lax security and Taliban threats in the provinces of Ghazni and Uruzgan.

Authorities said that the bomber blew himself up after he was identified by police about 1:30 p.m. Afghanistan time. Most roads were already closed to traffic after protesters started to convene in the area.

"The suicide attacker on foot wanted to target protesters, but he was stopped at a security checkpoint some 200 meters from the site," Nasrat Rahimi, the deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, said, according to Aljazeera. "There have been casualties and I can say most of them are security forces."

Officials told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the protest involved mostly people from the Shi'ite Hazara minority. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Afghan security forces and pro-government militias have been fighting the Taliban militants in the central part of Ghazni for the past week. Some 25 Afghan security personnel were killed in Ghazni's predominately Hazara districts of Malistan and Jaghori on Monday as well.

A report issued last month by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, SIGAR stated that the Afghan government controls or influences 55.5 percent of the country's districts, its lowest level since it started tracking district control in 2015.

The report stated that district control has become more contested over the past quarter, causing the Afghan security forces to lose their grip land they had secured in the past.