Kabul: At least two fighters and three civilians were killed in separate attacks on Taliban vehicles in an eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, as per witness reports.
In one attack, gunmen opened fire on a Taliban vehicle at a local gas station in the provincial capital of Jalalabad, killing two fighters and a gas station attendant, witnesses said. A child was also killed, they added.
Another child was killed and two Taliban were wounded in a separate attack - a bombing of another vehicle. Another bombing of a Taliban vehicle in Jalalabad also wounded a person nearby, although it was unclear if that person was a Taliban official or not.
The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
No one claimed immediate responsibility for Wednesday's attacks. But IS took responsibility for previous attacks in Jalalabad when a truck carrying Taliban fighters was the target of a bomb in Jalalabad on Sunday. Witnesses also said that several wounded Taliban fighters were taken to hospital after the explosion. A child was killed and two people including a Taliban member injured in an explosion in Nangarhar province. Three persons were killed and 21 injured in three consecutive explosions targeting the Taliban in Police District 5 of Jalalabad city of eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday.
The explosions come after the Taliban assured the people of Afghanistan of security and safety of their lives and assets.
The Taliban and IS are enemies, and the attacks have raised the specter of wider conflict between the country's new Taliban rulers and their long-time rivals.
The Taliban are under pressure to contain IS militants, in part to make good on a promise to the international community that they will prevent the staging of terror attacks from Afghan soil. There is also a widely held expectation among conflict-weary Afghans that - despite fears and misgivings about the Taliban - the new rulers will at least restore a measure of public safety.
It has been over a month when the Taliban captured Kabul after an aggressive and rapid advance against Afghanistan government forces amid the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the country.
