Bomb blast kills 1, wounds 11 in Kabul

A bomb blast on a minibus in a religious-minority neighbourhood of Afghanistan's capital killed one person and wounded 11 others on Sunday, a Kabul police spokesman said.

The blast went off in a western Kabul neighbourhood home to many Shiite Muslims -- a historically persecuted minority in Afghanistan and a frequent target of the Islamic State group, which considers them heretics.

"An IED (improvised explosive device) was planted on a minibus in the Dasht-e-Barchi area," Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said in a statement, adding an investigation was underway.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which took place around 4 pm (1130 GMT).

While the number of deadly bomb blasts and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has markedly declined since the Taliban ended their insurgency after seizing power in August 2021, a number of armed groups, including IS, remain a threat.