Afghan intelligence personnel inspect the site of a suicide attack along the Kabul-Jalalabad road in Kabul on November 27, 2014 (AFP)

An IED explosion killed four children and injured three others in Helmand on Saturday, the Afghan authorities reported, noting that the explosive device was brought by one of the children to their school.

The children were playing with an IED left over from the US-waged war on the country. "Four children were killed, and three were injured while playing with an unexploded ordnance remnant of war they brought to their school," the office of the police chief of the Helmand province said. "The ages of the victims range between 7 and 14."

A major explosion rocked the Herat district's largest mosque a day earlier, killing the mosque's imam, Mujib Rahman Ansari.

The imam, who was deemed influential by many, was killed in Gazargah Mosque just before Friday prayers; the explosion caused many casualties, according to local media.

In early August, a bomb exploded in Kabul, killing 8 civilians in a heavily residential area according to an Afghan official. The bomb was attached to a handcart loaded with vegetables in an area where residents buy their daily groceries. ISIS-K claimed the attack in a message on their Telegram channel.

Since reclaiming power in the country in August 2021, the Taliban movement has been battling a local chapter of IS-K, which is believed to be responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks and bomb explosions in Afghanistan.

The presence of IS-K in the country is minimal, and the movement has been working to eliminate the group, according to the Taliban.

Clashes erupted between Taliban militants and IS-K militants in early August in the country's capital.

The Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in August of last year after an incredibly chaotic withdrawal of US troops and the end of the US occupation of the country.