On Saturday, January 12, A small group of attackers with an unknown origin or purpose killed five individuals at a police station in Herat, Afghanistan with the use of an explosive-laden car. According to the regional hospital in Herat, which is located in the western region of Afghanistan, the victims were primarily policemen, but civilians were also killed. Jelany Farhad, a Herat provincial spokesman, spoke publicly on the event, and confirmed the deaths of the individuals, but did not address the reason or motive to the attack. Four other people were wounded in the attack and brought to the local hospital, but each individual was a native Afghan, causing the purpose of the attack to be difficult to analyze.

In addition, the claim for responsibility was not immediate, making it difficult for authorities to take much action. The Herat police chief said that forces killed one of the attackers and were searching for two others. Afghan security forces seized an explosives-laden vehicle that they said the attackers brought to the scene.

This attack has been connected to a previous attack in December, where at least 47 people were killed and 25 wounded during a seven-hour assault that began with a car bomb at a government building in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.

Both of these attacks come at a time when the US military has been ordered to begin planning to withdraw its troops in Afghanistan. So, these attacks could potentially be a reaction to US withdrawal, however, ties to the US could simply be a coincidence, and the purpose for both attacks could remain unknown.