People watch the damage inside a mosque after a bomb exploded in the Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan on Friday.
A Taliban police officer says at least 100 people have been killed and injured in an explosion at a mosque targeting Shia Muslims in northern Afghanistan. “Most of them are killed,” says friend Mohamed Obaidah.
There were no immediate claims for the blast in Kunduz province, but Islamic State militants have a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia Muslim minority.
If confirmed, the death toll in Friday’s attack would be the highest among militants since US and NATO troops left Afghanistan in late August and the Taliban took control of the country.
A powerful explosion at a mosque frequented by a religious minority group in northern Afghanistan killed several people, witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said today.
The blast took place at the Gojar-e-Saeed Abad mosque during weekly Friday prayers at a Shia mosque in Kunduz province, when members of the Shia religious minority turn up in large numbers for worship. Witness Ali Raza said he was praying at the time of the blast and reported several casualties.
Videos and photos on social media and elsewhere show people searching a destroyed mosque and carrying the body of a worshiper in an ambulance from the horrific scene.
Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a Shia mosque was targeted and a large number of worshipers were killed and injured. He said Taliban special forces have reached the spot and are investigating the incident.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. So far no group has claimed responsibility.
The Taliban leadership is battling a threat associated with the local Islamic State, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan. IS militants have intensified attacks to target their rivals, including two deadly bombings in Kabul.
IS has also targeted Afghanistan’s religious minorities in attacks.
Since the Taliban’s capture of Afghanistan in mid-August, attacks by ISIL-linked militants against them have increased. The rise in terrorist attacks has raised the possibility of a wider conflict between the two groups.
Earlier on Sunday, at least 12 people were killed and 32 others were injured in an explosion at a mosque in Kabul. The incident took place at a crowded place in Kabul’s Idgah Mosque.
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