Attacks link groups to China’s ‘crimes’ against Uighurs. Beijing urged the Taliban government to protect its citizens.
Published on January 20, 2026
ISIL (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack An explosion in a Chinese restaurant At least seven people were killed in the Afghan capital.
The group said in a statement posted on its official news agency late Monday that a suicide bomber entered a restaurant in Kabul frequented by Chinese nationals and detonated an explosive vest.
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A statement from ISIL, which killed or wounded 25 people in the blast, including Taliban guards, linked the attack to “escalating crimes against Uighurs by the Chinese government” and further threats against Chinese nationals in the country.
Union Home Ministry spokesman Mufti Abdul Mateen Kani said on Tuesday that the cause of the explosion at a Chinese noodle restaurant in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw area “is still unknown and is under investigation”.
A Chinese national identified as Ayub and six Afghan nationals were killed in the blast, police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.
The restaurant, which caters to the Chinese Muslim community, was jointly run by Abdul Majeed, a Chinese Muslim man, his wife and his Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, Zadran said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in a news release that five Chinese nationals had been injured, urging that Afghanistan “leave no stone unturned” in treating the injured and take measures to protect its citizens and investments.
China has close ties with Afghanistan, sharing a 76 km (47-mi) border with Afghanistan. The Taliban Since the group seized control of war-torn Afghanistan in 2021, government and Chinese business visitors have been flocking to the country.
Beijing rejects claims by rights groups that it is to blame for widespread abuses UighurA predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group numbering about 10 million make up the majority of the population in the far western region of Xinjiang, China.
Despite Taliban promises to restore security, bomb attacks continue in the country, many of which have been claimed by a local affiliate of ISIL.