“Christian tourists were targeted in an armed attack in the Afghan city of Bamiyan,” the jihadist-affiliated Amaq agency said in a statement posted on the Telegram site.
“Militants attacked Christian tourists and their fellow Shiites (a sect of Islam hated by IS) with machine guns, killing and wounding seven Christians and five Hazara Shiites,” the agency added.
Amaq also noted that “the dead and injured Christians were from countries such as Spain, Norway, Australia and Lithuania,” indicating that the attack was carried out “in response to orders from Islamic State leaders” to target Western citizens.
The same information note states that Bamiyan is “an important destination for Christian and pagan tourists because it contains statues of the Buddha” and is “guarded” by the Taliban, according to Amaq.
According to Safiullah Ray, Bamiyan’s director of information and culture, it was the first attack against a foreign tourist since the Taliban came to power in 2021 – when they visited the city “in a vehicle” on Friday.
The victims of the Spanish deaths were a woman and her daughter, both pharmacists who ran pharmacies in Barcelona’s Sands Station and Terraza respectively, and a 63-year-old retired engineer from Girona. Covestro, a chemical company, has its factory in Targona.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez told EFE on Saturday that Spaniards who survived the attack saw a man come out of an alley and shoot “very clearly” at a group of tourists.
A team of Spanish diplomatic officials arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul today to speed up the repatriation of the bodies of three Spaniards killed in the attack.