Three Spanish tourists and three Afghans were on Friday killed in a shooting in the popular tourism destination of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, local and Spanish authorities said.
Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani initially confirmed four deaths, saying that the victims were killed in gunfire on Friday evening, while another four foreigners and three Afghans were wounded.
Yesterday, Qani updated the death toll to six.
Photo: Reuters
“The new information is that three Afghan citizens were killed in the attack, of which one was a mujahidin [Taliban member] and two of them were civilians,” he said, adding that all the dead and wounded had been transferred to Kabul.
The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that three of the dead were Spanish tourists, adding that at least one other Spanish national was wounded.
“Overwhelmed by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X.
The EU condemned the attack “in the strongest terms.”
“Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims who lost their lives and those injured in the attack,” the body said in a statement.
Preliminary information provided by hospital sources showed that the wounded were from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain.
Security forces have arrested four people in connection with the attack, Qani said.
He did not say if there had been multiple shooters.
The Taliban government “strongly condemns this crime, expresses its deep feelings to the families of the victims and assures that all the criminals will be found and punished,” Qani said in a statement.
A local resident, who did not want to be named, said he “heard the sounds of successive gunshots, and the city streets leading to the site were blocked immediately by the security forces.”
Bamiyan, home to the giant Buddhas blown up by the Taliban in 2001, is Afghanistan’s top tourist destination.
Deadly attacks on foreigners have been rare in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power.
Arriving in western Herat Province on Friday evening, a foreign tourist posted on a WhatsApp group for travelers in Afghanistan that he and others were stopped by the Taliban authorities and told “that because of Bamiyan we were no longer safe.”
“After some time and Google translate, we convinced them to let us go. They said go eat quickly and get off the streets,” the tourist said.
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