Islamic State claims responsibility for causing Kabul power outage

The Islamic State militant group said on Friday that it was responsible for an explosion that brought down electricity lines and caused a major power outage in Kabul province.

The power outage that took place on Thursday was another blow to Taliban's efforts to stabilise Afghanistan after they captured power in the month of August. Taliban who led the insurgency against US-supported governments for two decades are finding themselves at odds with Islamic State.

In a statement published on its Telegram channels, Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) said "the soldiers of the caliphate detonated a bomb on an electricity pylon in Kabul" to damage the electricity sector.

The explosion that caused the power outage hit a high-voltage line that supplied power to Kabul and other provinces.

Afghanistan is heavily reliant on electricity produced in its northern neighbours Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This means that electricity has to be distributed in the country via long power lines that are often vulnerable to sabotage. Taliban itself used this tactic as it mounted insurgency against US-backed governments in Kabul.

The Taliban has promised to fight IS-K but the group has continued to carry out devastating atrocities.

Earlier this week, IS-K said it was behind a suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Kandahar on October 15 that killed 60 people.