Adding to the growing number of strikes against consular and embassy targets across Afghanistan, a Tuesday bombing was reported near several consulates in the city of Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border. There is so far no claim of responsibility.
Indian officials were quick to downplay reports that the bombing was close to their consulate, and just days after another one of their consulates was attacked in Afghanistan, in Mazar-e Sharif. The Jalalabad attack, however, is said to have been closer to the Pakistani consulate.
Jalalabad has its own series of complications above and beyond the rest of war-torn Afghanistan, as it is the center of ISIS operations in the country. While there was no claim of responsibility, this could be a failed ISIS attack against the consulates.
Which would explain the lack of public comment, as the bombing doesn’t appear to have caused any casualties or much damage, and the ISIS affiliate in particular wouldn’t want to make one of their first high-profile attacks be a comparative failure.