Acting minister killed in Kabul, Afghanistan

On Wednesday, December 12^th, Afghanistan’s acting Minister of Refugee and Repatriation Khalilur Rehman Haqqani, was killed in a suicide bombing. The event occurred outside of a mosque, close to his office in Kabul. Reports suggest that at least six others were also killed in the attack. Khalilur Rehman Haqqani was a senior figure among the Taliban and his death is described as the most significant among the Taliban leadership since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021: he fought Soviet forces along with his elder brother and founder of the Haqqani Network, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and later led insurgencies against US Forces and the Afghan republic governments of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani. In 2011, the US designated him as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” and offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. A photo of the suspected suicide bomber has been released by the Afghan Taliban, but no further details have been released. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Still, the Afghan Taliban accused the regional chapter of IS, known as the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K or IS-KP), a rivaling faction regularly targeted by the Afghan Taliban. Senior Taliban leaders have been targeted and killed since the takeover of the country, including provincial governors, commanders, and clerics, mostly in attacks claimed by IS.