The Afghan Taliban government’s minister for refugees was killed in an explosion Wednesday at the ministry’s headquarters in the capital Kabul, two senior Taliban regime officials told CBS News. The explosion at the Refugee Ministry killed Minister Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani and at least two of his colleagues, officials told CBS News’ Sami Yousafzai.
Haqqani was the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the feared Haqqani Network, responsible for some of the most violent attacks during the two decades of Taliban insurgency that followed the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to overthrow the previous government of the group.
He was also the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, currently the Interior Minister of Afghanistan.
VICE KOHSAR/AFP/Getty
Violence has generally declined in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in the summer of 2021, when U.S. and NATO allied forces withdrew in a chaotic withdrawal that remains under review meticulous in Washington.
However, the regional branch of the ISIS terrorist group, ISIS-Khorasan, has remained active in Afghanistan and regularly targets both Taliban regime officials, civilians and foreign nationals. Their attacks are widely seen as an attempt to undermine Taliban rule.
Taliban officials told CBS News that an investigation is underway to determine who carried out Wednesday’s attack that killed Haqqani, who they believe may have been the target of the blast.
