IS claims attacks against Taliban in Jalalabad

Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) on Sunday claimed weekend attacks against the Taliban in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, in two statements carried by IS's propaganda arm Amaq.

The group claimed "three separate bomb attacks" targeting three "Taliban vehicles" in Jalalabad on Saturday, and another "bomb attack" Sunday on "a Taliban vehicle".

A pickup truck carrying Taliban fighters was the target of a bomb in the Afghan city of Jalalabad Sunday, local media reported.

Witnesses told local media that several wounded Taliban fighters were taken to hospital after the explosion, which one journalist said happened near an interchange for transport to and from the capital, Kabul.

A day earlier, at least two people were killed in a series of blasts in the area, the first deadly blasts since the last US forces withdrew from Afghanistan on August 30.

IS-K also claimed responsibility for a bloody attack that killed more than 100 people at Kabul airport at the end of August.

The eastern city of Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province, the heartland of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan branch.

Although both IS and the Taliban are hardline Sunni Islamist militants, they differ on the issues of religion and strategy, which has led to bloody fighting between the two.