KABUL (Dispatches) – Three bombs rattled the Afghan capital Kabul killing at least 10 people and plunging the city into darkness, an Afghan government spokesman has said.
Two bombs exploded in quick succession in separate locations of a west Kabul neighborhood late on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding a dozen others, said deputy Interior Ministry spokesman Said Hamid Rushan.
A third bomb heavily damaged an electric grid station in north of Kabul, said Sangar Niazai, a spokesman for the government power supply department.
The initial two bombings, both targeting minivans, happened in a mostly ethnic Hazara area of the capital, said Rushan.
The first exploded near the home of a prominent Hazara leader, Mohammad Mohaqiq, and in front of a Shia mosque. Hazaras are Shia Muslims. The second bomb also targeted a minivan but Rushan said details were still being collected.
Police cordoned off the two areas and investigators were sifting through the rubble.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings. The Daesh affiliate operating in Afghanistan has previously declared war on minority Shia Muslims, who make up roughly 20 percent of the nation of 36 million people.
The Daesh affiliate previously claimed responsibility for several attacks in May on Afghanistan’s power supply stations in Kabul and in several other provinces.
Insecurity has been growing in the country since the U.S. missed a May 1 deadline to withdraw troops from the country.
The Taliban warned that the passing of the deadline for a complete withdrawal “opened the way for” the militants to take every counteraction they deemed appropriate against foreign forces in the county.
A U.S. military official was quoted by media outlets as saying on Tuesday the U.S. is set to hand over its largest military base in Afghanistan to the government forces in the upcoming weeks as Washington has pledged to withdraw its troops from the war-ravaged Asian country by September 11.
“I can confirm we will hand over Bagram Air Base,” the defense official said on condition of anonymity.
The official didn’t specify when the transfer of the sprawling U.S.-run airfield in Bagram would take place. But an Afghan security official said the handover was expected in about 20 days and the defense ministry had set up special committees to manage it.
The base is the largest military facility used by U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, with thousands of troops stationed there during the peak of America’s military involvement in the violence-wracked country.