At least 16 people were killed and 32 wounded when explosions hit a Shiite mosque in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday, a hospital spokesman told AFP. This is the second such attack on a mosque this fortnight in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
“Sixteen dead bodies and 32 wounded were taken to the Mirwais Hospital,” a spokesman for the southern city’s central hospital said.
A Taliban spokesperson said that they are trying to determine the ‘nature of explosion’.
Saeed Khosti, the spokesperson for the Taliban interior ministry, said, “A number of our compatriots were killed and wounded” in the explosion. He added that Taliban special forces have arrived at the scene to determine the “nature of the blast and to prosecute the perpetrators”.
Last Friday too, an explosion had struck a mosque in Afghanistan that was packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers, killing at least 46 people and wounding dozens. The region’s Islamic State affiliate had claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as an Uyghur Muslim. It said that the attack targeted both Shiites and the Taliban for their purported willingness to expel Uyghurs to meet demands from China. The statement was carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency.
The blast tore through a crowded mosque in the city of Kunduz during Friday noon prayers, the highlight of the Muslim religious week. It was the latest in a series of IS bombings and shootings that have targeted Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers, as well as religious institutions and minority Shiites since US and NATO troops left in August.
The worshippers targeted in Friday’s were Hazaras, who have long suffered from double discrimination as an ethnic minority and as followers of Shiite Islam in a majority Sunni country.
The Islamic State group and the Taliban, who seized control of the country with the exit of the foreign troops, are strategic rivals. IS militants have targeted Taliban positions and attempted to recruit members from their ranks.
In the past, the Taliban managed to contain the IS threat in tandem with US and Afghan airstrikes. Without these, it remains unclear whether the Taliban can suppress what appears to be a growing IS footprint. The militants, once confined to the east, have penetrated the capital of Kabul and other provinces with new attacks.
