KABUL — An Islamic State group suicide bomber struck on the road to a Shiite shrine in Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday, killing at least 33 people as Afghans celebrated the Persian new year, authorities said. The Sunni extremists of IS have repeatedly targeted Shiites, who they view as apostates deserving of death. Earlier this month another Islamic State suicide bomber targeted Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazaras, killing nine people and wounding 18 others. The bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint near a gathering of the minority Shiites in western Kabul. Kabul has recently seen a spate of large-scale militant attacks by both the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

Source: National Post March 21, 2018 08:33 UTC