The IS group claims a bomb attack in Afghanistan killed officials involved in a campaign against poppy cultivation

ISLAMABAD – The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bombing in northeastern Afghanistan that killed police officers involved in a campaign against poppy cultivation.

A booby-trapped motorcycle exploded, targeting a Taliban patrol in the city of Faizabad in Badakhshan province. Twelve patrol members were killed and injured and a four-wheel drive vehicle was destroyed, the group said in a statement late Wednesday.

Abdul Mateen Qani, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said officials were on their way to destroy poppy crops in the area.

The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, a major rival to the Taliban, has carried out attacks on schools, hospitals, mosques and Shiite areas across the country. In March, the group said one of its suicide bombers detonated an explosive belt among Taliban members who had gathered near a bank in Kandahar to receive their salaries.

The Taliban vowed to eradicate drug cultivation in the country and imposed a formal ban in April 2022, dealing a major blow to hundreds of thousands of farmers and day laborers who relied on the crop’s income to survive. A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime last November said opium cultivation fell by 95% after the ban.

Protests are rare in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, but there was a backlash in Badakhshan last week in response to the poppy eradication campaign.

This prompted a high-level delegation led by military chief of staff Fasihudin Fitrat to visit the region and negotiate with protesters.

Protests erupted last Friday after a man was shot dead by the Taliban for resisting attempts to eradicate poppies in Darayum district. Another was killed during a protest in Argo district on Saturday.