Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Friday that unknown assailants fatally shot three Western tourists and their local translator in the central city of Bamiyan.
The late-afternoon shooting in a busy central market also injured four people, including a foreigner, said the Taliban-led Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson.
Abdul Mateen Qani shared the details on his official social media platform, X, but did not disclose the foreigners’ nationalities.
He stated that Taliban security forces’ efforts to apprehend the attackers led to the arrests of four suspects linked to the assault.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly shooting.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns this incident, expresses its sympathy to the families of the victims, and assures them that all the criminals involved will be found and brought to justice,” Qani said, using the official title of the Taliban government.
Area officials and residents were reported as saying that the tourists came from Spain, Norway and Turkey, among other countries. However, the reports could not be verified from independent sources.
Friday’s attack on foreign tourists was the first since the Taliban stormed back to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
Bamiyan, one of the poorest regions in impoverished Afghanistan, is a popular destination for foreign tourists because it contains Buddhist monastic ensembles and sanctuaries, according to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The scenic city was also the spot where the Taliban destroyed two large Buddha statues in March 2001 during their previous rule in Afghanistan. The group said the statues were blasphemous under Islam.
