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ISIL Claims Deadly Blast at Chinese Restaurant in Kabul
ISIL has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Chinese restaurant in Kabul that killed at least seven people, including a Chinese national, citing China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims.
ND
by News Desk
2026-01-20
ISIL Claims Deadly Blast at Chinese Restaurant in Kabul

ISIL (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for an explosion at a Chinese restaurant in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul that killed at least seven people, including a Chinese national, in one of the deadliest attacks targeting foreign interests in recent months.

In a statement published late Monday on its Aamaq news agency, ISIL said a suicide bomber entered a restaurant in the Shahr-e-Naw commercial district — an eatery frequently visited by Chinese nationals — and detonated an explosive vest.

The group claimed that 25 people were killed or wounded, including Taliban guards, and linked the attack to what it described as “growing crimes by the Chinese government against Uighurs”. ISIL also issued fresh threats against Chinese nationals present in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior spokesperson Mufti Abdul Mateen Qani said on Tuesday that the exact cause of the blast at the Chinese Noodle restaurant was still under investigation.

Police spokesperson Khalid Zadran confirmed that the explosion killed one Chinese national, identified only as Ayub, and six Afghan citizens. He added that the restaurant catered primarily to the Chinese Muslim community and was jointly operated by a Chinese Muslim man, Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press briefing that five Chinese nationals were injured in the attack. He urged Afghan authorities to “spare no effort” in providing medical treatment to the wounded and to take concrete steps to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and investments in the country.

China shares a 76-kilometre border with Afghanistan and has maintained close relations with the Taliban-led government since it took power in 2021. Chinese business delegations and investors have increasingly visited Afghanistan amid Beijing’s interest in regional stability and economic projects.

Beijing has consistently rejected accusations by international rights organisations that it has committed widespread abuses against Uighur Muslims, an ethnic minority of about 10 million people living mainly in China’s Xinjiang region.

Despite repeated assurances by the Taliban that security has improved nationwide, deadly attacks have continued, many of them claimed by ISIL’s local affiliate, which has frequently targeted minorities, foreign nationals and Taliban officials.
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Afghanistan

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