TEMPO.CO, Jalalabad - A suicide bomber in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad killed 33 people and injured more than 100 on Saturday, setting off a blast outside a bank where government workers collect salaries, the city's police chief said.
President Ashraf Ghani blamed Islamic State militants, without giving further detail. If true, it would be the first such major attack carried out by the group in Afghanistan, marking a significant step in its expansion into South Asia.
Up until now militants claiming allegiance to Islamic State in Afghanistan have been widely identified as former Taliban fighters disillusioned with their leadership. The Taliban itself condemned Saturday's attack as "evil".
The explosion smashed windows and sent debris flying across a tree-lined street, filling the air with smoke and dust.
"It was a suicide attack," police chief Fazel Ahmad Sherzad told a news conference. He added that officials were investigating witness reports of a second explosion after people had rushed to the area to help the wounded.
Police said a later blast that shook Jalalabad was a controlled detonation after experts discovered a further bomb close to the scene of the initial explosion.
Local media said a former spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban had claimed responsibility on behalf of the Islamic State in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The spokesman could not be reached and his connection to the group could not be verified by Reuters.
Islamist militants of various hues already hold sway across restive and impoverished areas of South Asia, but Islamic State has started to draw support from younger fighters in the region, impressed by its rapid capture of territory in Syria and Iraq.
President Ghani visited Washington last month and warned that Islamic State posed a "terrible threat" to his country.
REUTERS
