Afghanistan

More than 30 killed in blast at Shia mosque in Afghanistan’s Kandahar

Photo: Twitter/Anas Malik.

Blasts tore through a Shia mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during Friday prayers, killing at least 32 people and injuring 53 others, TRT World reported.

The explosions came a week after a suicide attack on Shia worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz that was claimed by the Daesh group.

“Thirty-two bodies and 53 wounded people have been brought to our hospital so far,” a doctor at the city’s central Mirwais hospital told AFP.

The medical sources and a provincial official confirmed a toll of more than 30, and at least 15 ambulances were rushing to and from the scene, TRT World reported.

The mosque’s Facebook account has appealed for blood donations.

“Our initial information shows it was a suicide bomber who blew himself up inside the mosque,” a local Taliban official told AFP, adding an investigation had been launched.

An eyewitness told AFP he heard three explosions, one at the main door of the mosque, another at a southern area, and a third where worshippers wash before their prayers.

Another witness also said that three blasts rocked the mosque in the centre of the town during Friday prayers, the busiest congregation of the week.

We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” said interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti, of the Taliban movement that rules Afghanistan.

Nematullah Wafa, a former member of the local provincial council, said the blast on Friday occurred at the imambargah, a mosque for Shia Muslims, TRT World reported.

Taliban members have blocked all roads leading to the mosque where the attack took place.

The blast took place days after Daesh claimed a bombing at a Shia mosque in the northern city of Kunduz that killed at least 46 people.

 

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