(Kabul) A loud explosion and gunshots were heard on Monday afternoon in the Afghan capital, near a guesthouse popular with Chinese business visitors, without anyone knowing for the moment if there are victims.
“It was a very loud explosion and then there was a lot of gunfire,” a witness told AFP. Local media also reported similar information.
Security officials were not immediately available to comment on the explosion that occurred in the neighborhood at Shahr-e-naw, one of the capital’s main commercial areas.
This area is home to Kabul’s Longan Hotel, a multi-storey complex popular with Chinese businessmen who have been traveling to Afghanistan in increasing numbers since the Taliban’s return to power.
Beijing has not officially recognized the Taliban government, but China, which shares a 76 km border with Afghanistan, is one of the few countries to have maintained a diplomatic presence there.
Beijing has long feared that Afghanistan will become a base for separatists from the Uyghur minority coming from the very sensitive Chinese border region of Xinjiang.
The Taliban have promised that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for Uyghur militants. In return, China offered them economic support and investments for the reconstruction of the country.
Serial attacks
Maintaining stability in Afghanistan, after 20 years of war with the Americans and NATO forces, is the main concern of Beijing, which seeks to secure its borders and its strategic investments in Pakistan, their common neighbor.
The Taliban are also counting on China to turn one of the world’s largest copper deposits into a mining factory. An operation that would be invaluable in redressing the country, which is short of money and hit by international economic sanctions.
Although it holds the rights to major projects in Afghanistan, including the Mes Aynak copper mine in eastern Logar province, China has not advanced any of these projects.
The Taliban say it has improved security in the country since returning to power in August 2021, but numerous bomb attacks have been carried out in recent months, generally claimed by the local branch of the Islamic State (I-K) jihadist group.
This is not the first time foreigners have been targeted. On December 2, a security officer was injured when shots were fired at the Pakistani embassy in Kabul. The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the attack, confirming that it had targeted the head of mission.
Two employees of the Russian embassy in Kabul and four Afghans were also killed on September 5 near the building, in a suicide attack claimed there too by EI-K. It was then the first attack against a diplomatic representation since the return to power of the Islamists.