KABUL: Two people were killed and 12 wounded in an explosion in western Kabul on Thursday, police said, in the third deadly blast to hit the Afghan capital in less than a week.

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said a grenade was detonated outside a commercial center in the Dasht-e-Barchi area, an enclave of the historically oppressed Shiite Hazara community.

“The initial information shows that unfortunately two civilian compatriots were martyred and 12 others were wounded,” Zadran said in a statement.

The blast is the second deadly explosion in the area in less than a week.

On Saturday, a bomb planted on a bus that killed at least five people and wounded another 15 was claimed by the Daesh group, which considers Shiites heretics.

Daesh claimed responsibility for another blast days later in eastern Kabul, in which police said three people were killed and four wounded by a bomb hidden in a cart near a minivan.

The number of bomb blasts and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has declined since the Taliban ended their insurgency after seizing power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government.

A number of armed groups — including Daesh– remain a threat, however.