THE Afghan president has condemned a suicide bombing that targeted a gathering of Shiite Hazaras in Kabul.

The attack, which claimed the lives of nine people, has been claimed by Daesh.

President Ashraf Ghani’s statement, shortly after yesterday’s bombing in western Kabul, promised that those behind the attack would be given the death penalty, if found and convicted.

He said the bombing was intended to frighten Afghans but that the perpetrators would not succeed.

Meanwhile, Daesh in a statement posted on an affiliated website said it was behind the Kabul attack.

The suicide bomber targeting the minority community blew himself up at a police checkpoint in western Kabul, killing nine people and wounding 18, officials said.

According to Basir Mujahid, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, the bomber was on foot and was trying to strike a gathering of Hazaras who were commemorating the 1995 death of their leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, killed at the hands of the Taliban.

The bomber came as close to the gathering as he could and detonated his explosives at the checkpoint outside, the spokesman said. One policeman was among the dead.

Local Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq told the gathering that the explosion was an attempt to terrorise Afghans.