An Australian man injured in a deadly attack on foreign tourists in Afghanistan has been identified.
Joe McDowell, believed to be from Perth, was injured when several gunmen opened fire outside a restaurant in the central Bamiyan province on Friday night.
The attack, believed to have been carried out by Islamic State militants, claimed the lives of three Spanish tourists and one Afghan.
Jibra’il Omar, an Australian academic formerly known as Timothy Weeks, posted a photo of Mr McDowell smiling from his hospital bed on social media platform X.
“Today I visited my brother, Joe McDowell, who is currently in Kabul,” he wrote.
Joe McDowell (pictured right), believed to be from Perth, was injured when several gunmen opened fire outside a restaurant in the central province of Bamiyan on Friday night.
Four people were arrested following the shooting in the city of Bamyan, central Afghanistan (pictured: a member of the Afghan security forces checks a vehicle after the shooting)
‘He expressed his gratitude to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan for their support.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the tourists who lost their lives in the tragic attack in Bamiyan.”
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani confirmed that three foreigners and one Afghan had died.
“Security forces began trying to find the killers and so far, four people have been arrested in this case,” Qani added.
Four other foreigners and three Afghans were injured, he added.
The injured are believed to be from Australia, Lithuania, Norway and Spain.
Bamiyan is a UNESCO World Heritage area known for two giant Buddhist statues that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
Tourism in the region has increased since the Taliban came to power in 2022.
Last year, the Kabul Times reported last May that as many as 265 foreign tourists from countries including Italy, the United States, China, Spain, England and Russia had visited the site in a two-month period.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, published in X: “Overwhelmed by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan.”
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani (pictured) confirmed that three foreigners and one Afghan had been killed.
The city of Bamyan (pictured) is a UNESCO World Heritage area known for two giant Buddhist statues that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
Graphic images of the aftermath of the attack show men loading bloodied bodies into an ambulance.
The European Union Diplomatic Service issued a statement condemning the attack in the “strongest terms.”
“We condemn in the strongest terms the armed attack against a group of foreign tourists visiting Bamyan, Afghanistan,” the statement read.
“Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims who lost their lives and those injured in the attack.”
The Taliban, an authoritarian Islamist regime, gained control of Afghanistan after the United States withdrew from the country in 2021 following a 20-year counterinsurgency war.
Australia has no formal diplomatic ties with the new government.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson previously confirmed to NewsWire that the department was providing “consular assistance to an Australian in Afghanistan.”
