Chinese restaurant explosion kills seven

An explosion at a Chinese restaurant in the Afghan capital Kabul killed at least seven people, prompting Beijing to demand that the Taliban government protect its citizens.

An explosion at a Chinese restaurant in a heavily fortified area of ​​the city center on Monday killed six Afghans and a Chinese citizen and injured many others, officials told media.

The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the attack, but Kabul police said “the nature of the explosion is currently unknown and is under investigation.”

China urges its citizens not to travel to Afghanistan, which is controlled by the Taliban in 2021. The Islamic State has since claimed responsibility for multiple bombings.

Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday that China had “made urgent representations to the Afghan side and requested that the Afghan side do its best to treat the injured and take further effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens.”

City police spokesman Khalid Zadran said the explosion occurred near the kitchen of a Chinese noodle restaurant underneath a hotel in the Shahr-e-Naw area of ​​the capital.

Dejan Panic, Afghanistan director of the humanitarian organization EMERGENCY, said their hospital received “20 people”, seven of whom died on arrival. Four women and a child were also among the injured.

According to Reuters, videos of the aftermath of the explosion circulated on social media showed a large hole in the side of the building.

Witnesses told BBC Afghanistan that a car outside the restaurant was completely destroyed and locals helped take people in “critical condition” to hospital. Large sheets were later used to cover the damaged buildings.

Police spokesman Zadran said the restaurant mainly serves Chinese Muslims and is run by a Chinese Muslim man from China’s Xinjiang region, his wife and his Afghan business partner.

The local branch of the Islamic State said in a statement that China was on its “list” of targets, especially given China’s “increasing criminal activity against oppressed Uyghur Muslims.”

China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

The Chinese government denies all accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The Islamic State has previously said it was behind a 2022 attack on a Chinese-owned hotel in Kabul that killed three attackers and wounded at least two others.

Recently, Chinese citizens crossing the border with Tajikistan were attacked by unknown assailants. In November, six Chinese citizens were killed in three separate incidents. Beijing has asked its citizens to leave Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan.