The deceased cleric was identified as Rahimullah Haqqani.

SITE Intelligence Group Director Rita Katz said Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

"ISIS' Khorasan Province (ISKP) claims credit for assassination of prominent Taliban cleric Rahimullah Haqqani via suicide bombing in Kabul," she tweetd.

Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, Bilal Karimi, confirmed the veracity of the incident and told Khaama Press that the explosion happened in the Shash Darak area of Kabul’s Police District 2 “martyred” Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani.

According to four Taliban sources, the assailant had previously lost a leg and had stashed the explosives in a plastic prosthetic leg, Reuters reported.

Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani was an opponent of Islamic State, as per reports published in local Afghanistan media outlets.