Two killed in Kabul bus bombings claimed by ISIS

The blasts targeted an area with a large population of the predominantly Shiite Hazara minority

An Afghan man walks past shattered glass near the site of a bombing in Dasht-e-Barchi, Kabul, on December 10. AFP

Bus bombings claimed by the Afghan affiliate of ISIS killed two people and wounded four others in Kabul on Friday, the Taliban said.

"Two civilians have been killed and three others were wounded" when a bomb exploded on a minibus in the Dasht-e-Barchi district of the Afghan capital, the Taliban's interior ministry spokesman Sayed Khosti told reporters.

Another bomb blast in the area injured a woman, he said.

Dasht-e-Barchi is largely populated by the mostly Shiite Hazara community, who for years have been the target of violence by ISIS-Khorasan (IS-K).

The group claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message late on Friday, saying there were three explosions targeting buses carrying Shiites.

The bombings killed and wounding dozens of people, according to the message translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity.

Broken glass and damaged structures were seen on and near the street where one of the explosions occurred.

In November, a similar bomb attack on a minibus in Dasht-e-Barchi killed two people and wounded five others. That attack was also claimed by IS-K.

The group has claimed a string of attacks since the Taliban seized power from Afghanistan's western-backed government in August, including as suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Kandahar on October 15 that killed at least 60 people and injured scores more.

That attack came a week after another mosque bombing claimed by the group in northern Kunduz province that killed more than 60 people.

The Taliban has vowed to crush the rival Sunni extremist group, launching crackdowns against its hideouts, especially in the country's south and east.

Friday's bus bombings were the first fatal attack reported by the Taliban for several weeks.

But Kabul has been hit by repeated blasts lately that the Taliban say have been non-fatal.

The Taliban came back to power after a two-decade absence on August 15, when the previous government's resistance melted amid the final stages of a US military withdrawal from the country.

The Taliban's first stint in power lasted from 1996 until 2001, when a US-led invasion toppled their hardline regime.