One killed, 5 injured as blast hits Afghanistan’s Herat

An explosion has rocked Afghanistan’s western city of Herat, leaving one civilian dead and five others, including a police force member, wounded.

Herat police said the blast took place close to a compound belonging to the Afghan army on Herat’s Minarets Road on Saturday morning. Officials said the explosives were placed in a hand cart.

The Public Health Directorate in Herat said two of those injured in the explosion were in critical condition.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bears the hallmark of those carried out by members of the Taliban militant group.

Herat is among the relatively calm provinces in Afghanistan, but militants are active in the region’s several remote districts.

On July 23, twin explosions tore through a demonstration by members of Afghanistan's mainly Shia Muslim Hazara ethnic in the capital, Kabul, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 230 others. The deadly incident was claimed by the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

SS