KABUL, Feb 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The Islamic State group claimed a suicide bombing of a bank in north Afghanistan that killed eight people, saying on Wednesday it was targeting Taliban government employees collecting salaries the previous day.

Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the Taliban surged back to power and ended their insurgency in 2021, but the Islamic State (IS) group frequently stages gun and bomb attacks challenging their rule.

A suicide bomber attacked the front of a bank in the northern city of Kunduz on Tuesday, with the interior ministry raising the death toll on Wednesday from five to eight.

The IS propaganda wing said on Wednesday a suicide bomber had "detonated his explosive vest" as "Taliban militia members gathered outside a public bank to collect their salaries".

The group previously claimed responsibility for a similar bombing in March 2024 outside a bank in the southern city of Kandahar, which is considered the spiritual heartland of the Taliban movement.

IS said it had targeted "Taliban militia" members outside the bank. Taliban authorities said only three people had been killed in last year's incident but a hospital source put fatalities far higher at 20.

The Taliban government has declared security its highest priority since returning to power and analysts say they have had some success quashing IS with a sweeping crackdown.

But the group remains active, targeting Taliban officials, visitors from abroad, and foreign diplomats.

The UN Security Council -- which gave a higher toll for the Kunduz attack, saying "tens" were killed -- issued a statement strongly condemning the suicide bombing.

"Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to peace and security in Afghanistan, as well as in the world", the Security Council said, adding that all parties linked to such attacks must be brought to justice.

There are frequently discrepancies between the casualty tolls given by Taliban authorities and those reported by officials on the ground, and attack sites are routinely shut down by security forces.

IS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed the Taliban government's minister for refugees, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, in the capital Kabul in December.