Several killed in explosion at mosque in Kabul

INA-  sources 

At least three people have been killed and dozens of others wounded after a bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul during evening prayers, according to police and a hospital.

Italian non-governmental organization (NGO) Emergency, which operates a hospital in the capital, said it was treating 27 patients who had been wounded in the blast, three of whom had died. Five of the wounded were children.

“We have recorded three fatalities,” Emergency told the AFP news agency via email.

A security official told Al Jazeera that 20 people were killed in the blast and 40 others wounded. The Associated Press news agency reported the death toll at at least 10.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed there were dead and wounded, but did not specify how many.

“The murderers of civilians and perpetrators … will soon be punished for their crimes,” he wrote on Twitter

Police said there were multiple casualties, but also did not give a toll.

“A blast happened inside a mosque … the blast has casualties, but the numbers are not clear yet,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran told Reuters.

Witnesses told news agencies the powerful explosion targeted the Siddiquiya Mosque in the northern Kabul neighbourhood of Khair Khanna, shattering windows in nearby buildings.

A resident told the AP that the imam of the mosque, named by the witness as Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabuli, was among the dead. The eyewitness spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

Despite the Taliban’s assertion that they have brought security to the nation, Afghanistan has seen regular attacks by armed groups, many of them claimed by an ISIL affiliate known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), in recent months.
Last week, a prominent Taliban religious leader, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, was killed in a bombing attack at a seminary in Kabul, Taliban officials said. The ISIL (ISIS) armed group claimed responsibility for the attack.

In June, ISKP claimed responsibility for the attack on a Sikh temple in Kabul that killed two people.
The Taliban retook power in August 2021during the chaotic withdrawal of United States-led NATO forces. No country has yet recognised the Taliban’s de facto government.

source: ALJAZEERA