At least 50 people were killed in two suicidal attacks on Shia mosques in Kabul while 46 people injured who were shifted to hospitals.
A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people inside a Shi’ite mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday night, a security official said, and a separate bombing killed at least another 20 at a mosque in the middle of the country.
The Kabul bombing is the latest in a string of violent attacks on the country’s Shi’ite minority. The attack occurred at Imam Zaman mosque in the western Dasht-e-Barchi part of Kabul as Shi’ite worshippers gathered for prayers.
A senior security official said the exact number of casualties was unknown but that security forces at the scene had removed at least 30 bodies.
Afghanistan’s Shi’ite population has been heavily hit this year, with at least 84 people killed and 194 wounded in attacks on their mosques and religious ceremonies, according to a United Nations report released last week.
Among those were at least two attacks on mosques in Kabul in August and September.
A separate attack on a mosque in the central province of Ghor was also reported on Friday.
Iqbal Nezami, a spokesman for the Ghor provincial police, said at least 20 people were killed in the bombing that appeared to target a local leader.
The targeted official was a top local political and military leader of the Jamiat political party in Ghor, and was killed along with as many as 30 other worshippers, according to a statement from Balkh provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, a leading figure in Jamiat.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack.The last attack on a Shiite mosque in Kabul happened on September 29 as Muslims prepared to commemorate Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar.
Six people were killed when a suicide bomber posing as a shepherd blew him up near Hussainia mosque, one of the biggest Shiite centres in the city, as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers.
Ghor attack
A senior local police commander, who is believed to have been the target of the attack in the Dolaina district of Ghor province, is among the dead, district governor Mohsen Danishyar told AFP.
Danishyar put the death toll of the Ghor attack as high as 30, but Ghor provincial governor Naser Khazeh told AFP that he could only confirm 10 deaths.
Kabul bombing
“A suicide bomber entered the mosque in Police District 13 of Kabul city. The attacker opened fire on worshippers,” Kabul Crime Branch chief Gen Mohammad Salim Almas told AFP.
Maj Gen Alimast Momand said the attacker was on foot and walked into the mosque in the city's Dashti Barch area.
No group has claimed responsibility so far. However, recent assaults on Shia mosques have been carried out by the militant Islamic State (IS) group.
The last attack on a Shia mosque in Kabul happened on September 29 as Muslims prepared to commemorate Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar.
Six people were killed when a suicide bomber posing as a shepherd blew him up near Hussainia mosque, one of the biggest Shia centres in the city, as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers.
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