KABUL: The Islamic State group on Sunday claimed a bomb attack that killed a security guard and wounded a group of journalists and children in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif this week.

Saturday's bombing occurred at an event honouring Afghanistan's journalists, and came two days after a suicide bomber killed the Taliban governor of Balkh province in an attack also claimed by IS.

The attack against journalists was caused by a "parcel bomb that IS fighters managed to place and detonate" at the event held at a cultural centre in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, IS said in a statement on its Amaq news agency.

Bomb attack kills guard, wounds journalists in Afghan north

"The blast targeted a rally held inside a Shiite centre to reward several journalists working in agencies involved in the war and instigation against IS," the statement said.

A security guard was killed, while five journalists and three children were wounded in the bomb attack, police said.

The governor of Balkh, Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, was killed Thursday by a suicide bomber at his office in Mazar-i-Sharif.