Gunmen killed nine Shiite Hazara miners in the northern province of Baghlan onFriday, in the latest attack against ethnic minorities.
District governor Faiz Mohammad Amiri said in Kunduz that nine coalminers were killed by unknown gunmen in Tala wa Barfak, when they were heading home. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killings but the government blamed Islamic State jihadists who are making steady inroads into Afghanistan.
The rise of the Islamic State group has raised the spectre of sectarian discord in Afghanistan, something that the Sunni-majority country has largely been spared despite decades of war.