ISIS suicide bomber kills Taliban minister in Kabul

An Islamic State suicide bombing in Kabul on Wednesday killed a Taliban minister in the highest-profile casualty since the Taliban took power in ­Afghanistan three years ago.

Khalil Haqqani, Taliban minister for refugees and repatriation, seen in the centre of the above picture taken in 2023, was killed inside the ministry by a suicide bomber who evaded security, according to a source. Picture: Wakil Kohsar / AFP

An Islamic State suicide bombing in Kabul on Wednesday killed a Taliban minister who was a senior member of the notorious Haqqani family, with a US bounty on his head for terrorist activities, in the highest-profile casualty since the Taliban took power in ­Afghanistan three years ago.

Khalil Haqqani, Taliban minister for refugees and repatriation, was killed inside the ministry by a suicide bomber who evaded security, according to the Interior Ministry.

Three other people were killed in the blast, the ministry said.

Haqqani, who died at 58, was part of a fearsome family of the same name, which nurtured ties to al-Qa’ida since the 1980s and spearheaded the Taliban’s most violent thrust against American forces and the Western-backed government in Kabul until its collapse and the frantic US withdrawal in August of 2021.

One of the most senior members of the Haqqani network, Khalil was responsible for fundraising during the 20-year Taliban insurgency, using his close ties in the Gulf region. The US had designated him a terrorist with links to al-Qa’ida and offered a $US5m reward for information on him.

After the Taliban returned to power three years ago, the bulky, black-bearded Haqqani played a public role in establishing the Taliban’s rule in Kabul, appearing a couple of days after the takeover in a central mosque in the capital in front of a cheering crowd.

The Taliban immediately blamed Islamic State, which later took responsibility for the bombing, in a sign that despite a general decrease in attacks by the extremist group since 2021, it continues to pose a threat.

“Overall, the threat is much less in Afghanistan than it was a few years ago, but it clearly highlights that although the Taliban have weakened their local capabilities, they still have enough intelligence capacity to pull off such an operation,” Aaron Zelin, senior fellow with the Washington Institute think tank who tracks global Islamic extremism, said of Islamic State’s Afghan branch.

The bombing in the heart of Kabul breaks a period of calm there, and challenges Taliban claims of bringing peace to the nation after two decades of war, and that it has the threat from Islamic State under control.

The Wall Street Journal