A blast at a hotel in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad has killed at least three tribal elders and injured two others, although the exact cause of the explosion remains unclear.
The blast occurred Tuesday on the second floor of a hotel in Jalalabad, the capital city of the country’s violence-ridden Nangarhar Province, where the tribal elders had checked in, said a spokesman for the provincial governor, Attaullah Khogyani.
It was not clear if the blast was caused by a bomb, and Khogyani said no one had claimed responsibility.
The elders were visiting Jalalabad to take part in a meeting on the new electronic identity cards being distributed by the central government.
Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, has long been beset by militancy and violence. Both the Taliban and ISIS terrorist groups are present in the province.
A new study has found that the Taliban militants are openly active in 70 percent of Afghan territory, fully controlling four percent of the country and maintaining presence in another 66 percent.
ISIS has so far claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks in Jalalabad, including a Jan. 24 attack targeting an office of the Save the Children aid organization in the city.
On December 23, 2017, Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov warned that an estimated 10,000 members of ISIS were present in Afghanistan, and that their number was growing.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
