IS group claims bombing in Afghanistan that killed officers involved in an anti-poppy crop campaign

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Islamic State group says it is responsible for a bombing that killed officers involved in an anti-poppy crop campaign in Afghanistan’s northeast. A motorcycle was booby-trapped and exploded, targeting a Taliban patrol in Badakhshan province. The group says the bomb killed or wounded 12 members of the patrol and destroyed a vehicle. The Taliban pledged to wipe out the country’s drug cultivation industry and imposed a formal ban in April 2022, dealing a heavy blow to hundreds of thousands of farmers and day laborers who relied on proceeds from the crop to survive. The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan is a major Taliban rival.