Kabul: According to the provincial spokesperson, a car bomb on Tuesday killed the deputy governor of Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan.

Mahzudeen Ahmadi, the director of the provincial information office, reported that Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi and his driver had died and that six civilians had been hurt.

The attack, which was the first significant explosion in Afghanistan in several weeks, was not immediately known who was responsible.

Also Read: In the next two years, the cost of the UK government's Illegal Migration Bill could reach £6 billion

The Taliban government has been conducting raids against ISIS members; ISIS has claimed responsibility for a number of significant attacks in urban areas, including Kabul.

The Taliban had support for years after losing power in 2001. An American nonprofit organisation called The Asia Foundation discovered in 2009 that 50% of Afghans, mostly Pashtuns and rural Afghans, sympathised with armed opposition groups, primarily the Taliban. Afghan dissatisfaction with government institutions was a contributing factor in their support for the Taliban and their allies.

Also Read:  Turkish troops have deployed to support NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo following recent violence

However, a response to the same survey in 2019 revealed that only 13.4% of Afghans supported the Taliban. An overwhelming majority of those polled believed it was critical to safeguard  women's rights, freedom of speech, and the constitution as intra-Afghan peace negotiations stalled in early 2021.

The main military threat to the Taliban has emerged as the Islamic State in Khorasan, which has up to 4,000 members in Afghanistan. Even as the Taliban strive to eradicate it, the terrorist organisation has continued to carry out attacks, particularly against communities of minorities like the Hazaras. According to analysts, the group's attacks on the Chinese, Pakistani, and Russian embassies in Kabul in late 2022 may prevent those nations from investing in Afghanistan. 

Also Read: On the day he was fatally shot during riots, a Senegalese man warned of gun violence

The Islamic State in Khorasan claimed responsibility for an attack that left 13 American service members and at least 170 Afghan civilians dead and occurred close to the Kabul airport during the American troop withdrawal. The self-proclaimed Islamic State decided to give the group an additional $500,000 in funding as a result of that attack, according to the UN monitoring team.