The Taliban government reported on Monday the arrest of several members of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group who were allegedly involved in the attack on a group of tourists last May in Afghanistan, during which seven people died, including four Spanish citizens.
Those arrested were “key members” of ISIS’s Afghan branch, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on social network X, in which he said they had been involved in several attacks, including “an attack on foreign tourists in Bamiyan”. province.”
The attack on the tourists, in which eight other people were also injured, occurred on May 17, when the group of foreigners was visiting the Bamiyan market as part of an excursion, and an unknown number of attackers began shooting at them.
The arrest of the suspected IS members took place during a large operation carried out by Taliban special forces in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar, Mujahid said, without specifying the exact number of those arrested. Additionally, he said two insurgents died during the operation.
Initially, three Spaniards died in the attack last May: a woman and her daughter, who ran two pharmacies, and a retired engineer from Girona, as well as three other Afghan citizens, while another Spanish citizen of 82 years old was seriously injured. hurt.
The Spaniard ended up dying on July 31 in a hospital in Bilbao, where she remained hospitalized for two months since her repatriation from Afghanistan.
Two other Spaniards remained unharmed during the attack. The Taliban reported in the days that followed the arrest of seven people suspected of involvement in the attack, but did not provide details on whether any of them were responsible for the shooting against tourists.
The fundamentalist government denies the presence of ISIS on its territory, despite the incessant attacks carried out by the terrorist group in Afghanistan. One of the most recent took place on September 2, when at least six civilians were killed and thirteen others injured in a suicide attack in Kabul claimed by the jihadist group.
