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The cause of the blast was not immediately clear though the region, near the border with Pakistan, has long been plagued by violence between Islamist militants and their enemies.
The Khost media office said people originally from Pakistan’s Waziristan region, which is just over the border and where for years various militant groups have operated, were among the casualties. Pakistan’s foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration has faced an insurgency by Islamic State militants, who have claimed a series of deadly attacks targeting civilians, foreigners and Taliban security forces in recent months
Pakistan, meanwhile, has seen an increase in violence by Pakistani Taliban militants fighting the state, and it has complained that Afghanistan’s Taliban are not doing enough to suppress the militants based on their soil. The Taliban have said they are focused on securing Afghanistan and have carried out several raids against Islamic State cells in recent months. More than 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in bombings and other violence since foreign forces left Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban took over, according to the United Nations.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Writing by Shivam Patel, editing by Ed Osmond)
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