blast at mosque in southern Afghanistan; fear of casualties
A Shia mosque in southern Afghanistan exploded today during Friday prayers in Kandahar, Afghanistan. According to Tolo News, there are reports of several casualties. A Taliban spokesman said the service usually involves large crowds of worshippers. Bilal Karimi said a week after a similar attack in the country’s north targeted a mosque in the southern province of Kandahar. He did not give further details and said that the investigation is on.
It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack. The mosque is frequented by the Shia minority who are often targeted by the Islamic State group. Last week, IS claimed a suicide bombing inside a Shia mosque in the northern province of Kunduz killed 46 people.
The claim, made by the IS-affiliated Aamak news agency and quoted by the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist postings, came hours after the blast at a packed mosque in Kunduz city on Friday.
The attack was the latest in a series of IS bombings and shootings that targeted Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers, as well as religious institutions and members of the country’s Shia minority.
An explosion on Friday at a mosque filled with Shia Muslim worshipers in northern Afghanistan killed at least 46 people and injured dozens in the latest security challenge for the Taliban as they transition from insurgency to regime.
One of the highlights of the Muslim Religious Week was an explosion at a mosque in Kunduz city during afternoon prayers. It blew out windows, burned ceilings, and scattered debris and bent metal all over the floor. The rescue team carried one body on a stretcher and the other in a blanket. There were blood stains on the stairs ahead.
Hussaindad Rezai, a resident of the area, said that as soon as the prayers started, he reached the mosque after hearing the sound of the explosion. “I had come in search of my relatives, the mosque was full,” he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what Kunduz police said could have been a suicide attack. But militants from a local organization affiliated with the Islamic State have a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s ethnic and religious minorities.
The worshipers targeted on Friday were Hazaras, who have long suffered double discrimination as an ethnic minority and as adherents of Shia Islam in the Sunni majority country.
Since the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan in late August, the Islamic State group has been behind a surge in attacks against the Taliban. IS and the Taliban, who took over the country with the withdrawal of foreign troops, are strategic rivals. IS militants have targeted Taliban positions and tried to recruit members from their ranks.
In the past, the Taliban managed to control the threat of IS in conjunction with US and Afghan airstrikes. Without these, it is unclear whether the Taliban can suppress the growing IS footprint. Militants, once confined to the east, have entered the capital of Kabul and other provinces with fresh attacks.
It comes at a crucial moment as the Taliban seeks to consolidate power and transform its guerrilla fighters into a structured police and security force. But while the group attempts to project an air of authority through reports of raids and arrests of IS members, it remains unclear whether it has the ability to protect soft targets, including religious institutions.
In Kunduz, police officers were picking up pieces from the Gojar-e-Saeed Abad mosque on Friday.
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