IS suspect arrested in Pakistan Embassy attack in Kabul

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This article was published 05/12/2022 (1065 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A member of the militant Islamic State group has been arrested in last week’s shooting attack targeting the Pakistani Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, the spokesman of the Taliban government said.

The attack, in which shots were fired at the embassy from a nearby building, triggered anger in Pakistan, and increased tensions between the two South Asian neighbors.

Pakistan’s top diplomat in Kabul was walking across the lawn inside the embassy compound at the time of the attack. He was unharmed but one of his Pakistani guards was wounded.

The regional affiliate of the Islamic State group, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province and a rival of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.

The Islamic State group said two of its fighters attacked “the renegade Pakistani ambassador and his guards” while they were inside the embassy’s yard. The statement gave no further details.

The chief spokesman for the Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced the arrest of a suspect in a tweet Monday.

Mujahid said the suspect is a foreign national and that the attack was organized jointly by IS and “rebels,” apparently a reference to anti-Taliban groups in Afghanistan.

“Some foreign circles are behind the attack and the aim was to create distrust between the two brotherly countries Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Mujahid wrote, without elaborating.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. They established their own administration, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.