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Kabul Explosion: At Least 10 Killed After Huge Explosion Hits Mosque

Dozens feared dead or injured in a mosque explosion during night prayers in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

Witnesses and police told the Associated Press that at least 10 people were killed and 27 injured, including a prominent cleric among the dead.

Witnesses said the suicide bomber was behind the explosion at the city's Hail He Siddiqiyah Mosque in Qana district. The cleric killed was Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabri, a witness said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Other reports have varied the number of deaths. Al Jazeera quoted officials who reported 20 deaths.

An emergency hospital in Kabul said it had accepted 27 of his patients, including a 7-year-old child. Three of the patients died, the hospital said.

Witnesses told Reuters that a powerful explosion was heard in a neighborhood north of Kabul, shattering windows of nearby buildings. An ambulance rushed to the scene.

"An explosion occurred inside a mosque...The number of casualties from the explosion is not yet clear," Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran told Reuters. .

A Taliban intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the explosion occurred at a mosque among worshipers in Kabul's Hail-Khana area.

An intelligence team was at the site of the explosion and an investigation was underway.

Other Taliban government officials did not respond to multiple requests to confirm casualty figures.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the blast, vowing that "the perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and punished."

It was the latest attack on the country since the Taliban seized power when Western forces left the country.

Since regaining control, the former militants face a devastating economic crisis as the international community, which does not recognize the Taliban government, has frozen funding to the country.

Separately, the Taliban confirmed Wednesday that they had captured and killed Mehdi Mujahid as he was trying to cross the border into Iran in western Herat province.

Mujahid is a former Taliban commander in the Barqab district of northern Salepur province, a Shiite Hazara minority among Taliban fighters. He was the only member of the community.

The Mujahids had turned against the Taliban over the past year after opposing decisions by Taliban leaders in Kabul.