Bodyguard killed as motorcycle bomb targets Taliban intelligence in Afghanistan

An explosion struck the sixth district of Faizabad, the capital of northeastern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, on the morning of Sunday, October 4, 2026, targeting employees of the Taliban’s intelligence apparatus.

Local sources and witnesses reported that a bomb-laden motorcycle detonated near the Khatam al-Nabiyyin Mosque as Taliban intelligence personnel were passing through the area. The blast was powerful enough to be heard across parts of the city.

According to these accounts, Safiullah Mutawakkil (also rendered as Safiullah Metwakel), described as a prominent Taliban intelligence official in Badakhshan, was seriously wounded. One of his bodyguards was killed. Mutawakkil has been linked by local residents to the identification, arrest, and transfer of former Afghan government military personnel and other residents to Taliban intelligence facilities in Kabul.

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the group said its forces carried out a targeted operation at approximately 9:30 a.m. in the sixth district of Faizabad that killed the Taliban’s deputy intelligence chief for the city along with two of his guards. The NRF stated that no civilians were harmed.

Taliban authorities have not issued an official comment on the incident or the reported casualties as of the latest available reports. Details of the attack have not been independently verified by international observers.

The incident occurs amid a rise in security incidents in Badakhshan in recent weeks and months, including other explosions, arrests of people accused of links to opposition groups, and claimed attacks by anti-Taliban armed factions such as the NRF and the Afghanistan Freedom Front.