A group of tourists and their companions were targeted while walking through a market in central Afghanistan.
Three Afghan nationals and three Spanish tourists were killed in Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan, the Taliban government announced, raising the death toll from the attack on a market.
On Saturday, the government said the bodies of the three Afghans and three Spanish tourists had been transported to the capital, Kabul.
THE the group was kicked out while walking through a bazaar in the mountainous town of Bamyan, about 180 km (110 miles) from Kabul, on Friday.
“All the corpses have been transferred to Kabul and are in the forensic department and the injured are also in Kabul. Among the dead and injured are women,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP.
“Among the eight injured, including four foreigners, only one foreigner, elderly, is not in a very stable situation.”
According to hospital sources in Bamyan, the injured came from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain.
Qani said the dead included two Afghan civilians and a Taliban member.
“They were wandering in the bazaar when they were attacked,” he added.
Seven suspects were in custody and one of them was injured, according to Qani, who said the investigation was continuing.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Spanish government announced Friday that three of the victims were Spanish tourists, adding that at least one other Spanish national was injured.
“Overwhelmed by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X.
The bodies would likely be repatriated to Spain on Sunday, according to Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, speaking to Spanish public television TVE.
He said one of the injured had already been operated on in Kabul.
Afghanistan’s struggling tourism sector has seen the number of foreign tourists increase 120 percent year over year in 2023, to reach almost 5,200, according to official figures.
Bamyan is Afghanistan’s top tourist destination, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site and the remains of two giant Buddha statues that the Taliban blew up during their previous rule of Afghanistan in 2001.
From take control In the country in 2021 after the withdrawal of US-led forces, the Taliban promised to restore security and encourage small but growing numbers of tourists.
Friday’s attack was the deadliest since the Taliban took power three years ago.
The Spanish embassy was evacuated in 2021, along with other Western missions, after the Taliban regained control of Kabul.
