Two militants used a car bomb to attack the headquarters of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-e-Islami, on Darul Aman Road in Kabul, local sources tell Zan Times.
The attack occurred at around 2 p.m. on Friday, December 2, when the the attackers blew up their vehicle at the entrance of the mosque at his headquarters and then clashed with Hekmatyar’s gunmen.
According to the reports received from the scene of the incident, at least two attackers and two armed guards of the Hezb-e-Islami offices were killed in the incident.
There are reports that the attackers wanted to enter the mosque, which Gulbuddin Hekmatyar attends on Fridays.
Local media have reported that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was not harmed in the attack, but it is not clear whether he was at his headquarters during the attack or not.
No person or group has yet taken responsibility for this attack. Two days ago, an explosion occurred in a religious school in Aybak, the provincial capital of Samangan province. At least 19 people were killed and 23 injured at the school.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar led the largest jihadist organization in the 1980s, which famously received the largest amount funding from the United States for its fight against the Soviets, then occupying Afghanistan. After the Taliban took Kabul in 1996, the mujahedeen leader fled the country. His power waned dramatically in the aftermath of the Taliban ouster in 2001 and he signed a peace deal with then-president Ashraf Ghani in 2016 and began living openly in Kabul.
Hekmatyar, 73, is a controversial yet seasoned Islamist politician who, though now politically and militarily ineffectual, has kept himself relevant by shifting his allegiances and beliefs. After the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Hekmatyar remained in the city. Though he has publicly distanced himself from the Taliban’s ban on girls’ educationt he has been careful not to anger the new regime.
