Islamic State (IS) group – The Milli Chronicle

Islamic State group claims responsibility for an explosion in Afghanistan, killing 4

NewsDesk Milli Chronicle — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 08:35:43 +0000

Islamabad (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an explosion in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Afghanistan’s capital that killed at least four people.

Seven others were critically wounded in the attack Thursday evening, according to Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief.

Islamic State affiliates claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement late Friday through its news agency Aamaq, saying it “managed to leave a booby-trapped suitcase” inside a Shiite gathering place that exploded, killing and wounding about 35 people and inflicting heavy damage on a sports club.

Video taken after the explosion shows part of a building with its windows blown out and a fire inside. Shattered glass and other debris are strewn across the street below.

The scale of the damage was clearer Friday morning. There were craters in the ground and most of the interior was gutted. Workers picked their way through boxing gloves and gym equipment on the blood-splattered floor.

The Dashti Barchi area of Kabul has been repeatedly targeted by the Islamic State group affiliate in the country, which has carried out major assaults on schools, hospitals and mosques. The group has also attacked other Shiite areas of Afghanistan in recent years.

IS has been waging a campaign of violence since the Taliban took power in August 2021.

‘The monster can come again’: Revisiting the horrors of Raqqa under IS group

Millichronicle — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 15:31:12 +0000

In 2014 the peaceful city of Raqqa in northern Syria was proclaimed the capital of the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate. For nearly four years, residents there lived under a reign of terror.

A new book out in French brings their stories to the world. “L’Asphyxie : Raqqa, chronique d’une apocalypse” (“Asphyxiation: Raqqa, Chronicle of an Apocalypse”) is co-written by French reporter Céline Martelet and Syrian journalist Hussam Hammoud.

Hammoud has just arrived in France where he has been granted asylum after an initial rejection by French authorities. The two authors joined us for Perspective.

The persecution of the Hazaras: Afghan Shiites targeted by deadly attacks

Millichronicle — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 19:22:51 +0000

Kabul (France24) — Afghanistan’s Hazara community, a Shiite minority, is regularly targeted by the Afghan branch of the Islamic State (IS) group, which considers Hazaras as heretics.

Dozens of people, mostly girls, were killed in an attack on an education centre in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul on September 30. Although the attack has not been claimed, the IS group is the main suspect.

Since the Taliban seized power a year ago, Hazaras denounce systemic discrimination and the inability of the new authorities to ensure their safety. Our correspondents report.