The government accused the Islamic State of being behind the attack, which struck at the heart of the Taliban’s power structure after years of essentially unchallenged dominance.

The explosion struck inside the ministry, killing Khalil Haqqani, officials said. His last official photo showed him at a meeting chaired by the deputy prime minister earlier Wednesday.

The Taliban’s acting minister of refugees and repatriation, Khalil Haqqani, was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul on Wednesday.Haqqani, a senior member of the powerful Haqqani network and uncle of the Taliban’s interior minister and senior leader Sirajuddin Haqqani,