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Taliban provincial governor killed in suicide bombing in northern Afghanistan

Armed Taliban security personnel stand guard on a roadside in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after a bomb blast that killed provincial governor Mohammad Dawood Muzammil. Photo by Samiullah Popal/EPA-EFE
1 of 3 | Armed Taliban security personnel stand guard on a roadside in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after a bomb blast that killed provincial governor Mohammad Dawood Muzammil. Photo by Samiullah Popal/EPA-EFE

March 9 (UPI) -- The governor of Afghanistan's Balkh province in the north of the country was killed along with two others after a bomb exploded at his office in the capital Mazar-I-Sharif on Thursday, police said.

The early morning attack that killed Mohammad Dawood Muzammil injured at least seven people, according to local hospital officials.

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A man wearing a suicide vest blew himself up on the second floor of the building where Muzammil had had his offices, provincial police officials said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, confirming the governor's death in a Twitter post, said it was "with great sadness we received the news that Balkh Governor Alhaji Mullah Mohammad Daud Muzammil was martyred in an explosion by the enemies of Islam."

He added that authorities had begun an investigation into the attack.

No group has claimed responsibility but in the 18 months since regaining power following the pullout of U.S.-led NATO forces in 2021, the Taliban has been targeted by Islamic State.

Thursday's deadly attack came 24 hours after the Taliban claimed it had killed eight rebel forces in Mazar-I-Sharif without saying with which group they were affiliated.

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Muzammil, the second most senior Taliban figure to be killed since it retook control of Afghanistan, headed a crackdown on IS in the Nangarhar Province in the country's east where he was governor before being appointed governor of Balkh last year.

IS has emerged as the Taliban's biggest security threat launching attacks against Afghans as well as foreign interests.

The group claims it is fighting for a global Islamic "caliphate", as opposed to the Taliban's more parochial ambition for an independent Afghanistan over which it would rule.

IS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in January near the foreign ministry in Kabul that killed 10 people as well as attacks in Balkh last year.

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