At least 32 dead, several injured in Kandahar mosque blast

KANDAHAR: At least 32 people were killed and 53 wounded when explosions hit a Shia mosque in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday.

The explosion on Friday afternoon took place in the Bibi Fatima mosque, the largest mosque for Shia worshippers in the city. “Thirty-two bodies and 53 wounded people have been brought to our hospital so far,” the medic in the southern city’s central hospital said.

The cause of the blasts was not immediately identified, but it came exactly a week after a suicide bomb attack on Shia worshippers in the northern city of Kunduz, that was claimed by the Islamic State group.

An eyewitness said he heard three explosions, one at the main door of the mosque, another at a southern area, and a third where worshippers wash themselves.

Interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti said on Twitter: “We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shia brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded.”

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Taliban special forces arrived in the area “to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice”, he added. The images on social media showed many people apparently dead or seriously wounded on the floor of the mosque. 

Nematullah Wafa, a former member of the provincial council, said the blast occurred at the Imam Bargah and caused heavy casualties but there was no immediate confirmation of the number of dead and wounded.

The incident took place a week after dozens of people were killed and more than 100 others were wounded when a mosque in the northern province of Kunduz was targeted in an ISIL-K claimed bombing. The Taliban-led government promised a quick response and to hold the perpetrators of the Kunduz attack responsible.