Blast kills seven at Chinese-run restaurant in Afghan capital

The Afghan branch of the Islamic State claims responsibility for Monday's attack, saying it was carried out by a suicide bomber

An explosion tore through a Chinese-run restaurant in a hotel in a heavily guarded part of Afghanistan's capital on Monday, killing a Chinese national and six Afghans and injuring several others including a child, officials said.

The restaurant was in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw neighbourhood of Kabul that includes office buildings, shopping complexes and embassies, police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said. The district is considered one of the safest in the city.

The Afghan branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, saying in a statement that it was carried out by a suicide bomber.

The Chinese restaurant was jointly run by a Chinese Muslim man, Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, and served the Chinese Muslim community, Zadran said.

The Amaq news agency said the local arm of Islamic State had put Chinese citizens on its list of targets, citing "growing crimes by the Chinese government against Uyghurs."

Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority group of about 10 million people who live in China's far western Xinjiang region. Beijing denies any abuse and has accused Western countries of interference and peddling lies.

One Chinese national, identified as Ayub, and six Afghans were killed in the blast, which occurred near the kitchen, while several others were injured, Zadran added.

Videos shared on social media showed debris scattered on the street outside and smoke spewing from a large hole torn into the front of the restaurant building.

"So far, we have received 20 people at our hospital," Dejan Panic, humanitarian group EMERGENCY’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"Among the wounded are four women and a child ... Unfortunately, seven people were already dead on arrival."

There was no immediate word on the cause of the explosion. Authorities said they were investigating.

The Taliban took control of war-torn Afghanistan in 2021 and said it would restore security, but bomb attacks have continued, many of them claimed by the local arm of the militant Islamic State group.