KABUL: Unidentified gunmen fired at a bus ferrying airport employees in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least two people and wounding six others, a senior police official said.

The bus was ambushed by two gunmen on its way to the Mazar-i-Sharif airport, Balkh provincial police spokesman Mohammad Asif Waziri said.

“The vehicle came under attack when the technical team was on its way to the airport,” Waziri said.

The ambush was the latest in a series of deadly attacks that have hit Afghanistan in recent months.

Foreign airlines have still not resumed flights to Kabul and other Afghan cities since the Taliban seized power in August, citing security concerns for their crew and passengers.

While Taliban fighters provide security at all Afghan airport terminals, a UAE firm has been tasked with providing ground handling and passenger screening services at several facilities.

Since the Taliban’s return to power, the country has faced an acute shortage of professionals in a wide array of fields, including technical staff for the country’s airports.

While levels of violence in Afghanistan have fallen since the hardline Islamist group returned to power, bombings and gun attacks have ticked up recently.

On Saturday, a bomb blast targeting a minibus in the capital Kabul killed at least four people and injured several others.

Dozens of civilians were killed in Kabul and other cities — primarily in sectarian attacks — during Ramazan, with some attacks claimed by the militant Islamic State group.

Many of those attacks targeted the country’s Shia Hazara and Sufi communities.

Published in Dawn,June 13th, 2022