IS claims attack in Afghanistan's Jalalabad

CAIRO - Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, the group's Amaq news agency said on Sunday.

At least three bombs exploded outside a jail compound, officials said.

A suicide car bomb and multiple gunmen attacked a prison in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, killing at least three people and injuring 24 others.

The gunbattle between Afghan security forces and insurgents in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, was still ongoing Sunday evening, and casualties were likely to rise, according to Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said at least three people were killed, while Zahir Adil, the spokesman for the provincial Health Ministry, provided the figure of 24 wounded.

Sunday’s attack comes a day after the Afghan intelligence agency said a senior IS commander was killed by Afghan special forces near Jalalabad.

The Taliban’s political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press, “We have a cease-fire and are not involved in any of these attacks anywhere in the country,” but said he was not aware of the details of the Jalalabad attack.

The Taliban declared a three-day cease-fire starting Friday for the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The Taliban had also denied involvement in a suicide bombing in the eastern Logar province late Thursday, which killed at least nine people and wounded at least 40, authorities said.

Afghanistan has seen a recent spike in violence, with most attacks claimed by the local IS affiliate.

A United Nations report last month estimated there are around 2,200 IS members in Afghanistan, and that while its leadership has been depleted, the group “remains capable of carrying out high-profile attacks in various parts of the country, including Kabul.”

Efforts to get peace talks underway between the Taliban and the Kabul government have stalled after the Taliban and the U.S. signed a deal in February, seen as a blueprint to ending Afghanistan’s decades of war.

That deal was struck to allow the U.S. to end its 19-year involvement in Afghanistan, and calls on the Taliban to guarantee its territory will not be used by terrorist groups. The deal is also expected to guarantee the Taliban’s all-out participation in the fight against IS.