Kabul mosque bombing kills at least 10, including prominent cleric

Kabul, Afghanistan — At least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, were killed and at least 27 injured when a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul was bombed during a Wednesday evening service, said witnesses and police.

He was the latest attack on the country a year after the Taliban seized power. It is reported to contain several children.

With US and NATO forces in the final stages of their withdrawal from the Taliban, the local ISIS branch has ramped up attacks targeting the Taliban and civilians since the takeover by former militants last August. Last week, ISIS claimed responsibility for the killing of a prominent Taliban cleric at his religious center in Kabul.

According to eyewitnesses, residents of the Kah Khanna district of the city where the Siddiqiyah Mosque was targeted, the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber. rice field. 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.

He added that more than 30 of his others were wounded. Kabul's Italian Emergency Hospital said at least 27 injured civilians, including five children, were transported there from the blast site.

Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Taliban-appointed Kabul police chief, has confirmed an explosion inside a mosque in northern Kabul However, he did not disclose the number of casualties or a breakdown of the dead and wounded.

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

More casualties were threatened. On Thursday morning, one of his witnesses to the blast, who identified himself as Qyaamuddin, told The Associated Press that he believed the blast may have killed as many as 25 people.

"It was night prayer time when the explosion happened and I was in prayer with other people," he said Qyaamuddin. Some Afghans go by a single name.

An AP journalist could see a blue-roofed Sunni mosque from a nearby hillside. The Taliban parked police trucks and other vehicles at the mosque.

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, a US-led invasion overthrew the previous Taliban regime that had hosted al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

The former militants have faced a devastating economic crisis since regaining power as the international community, which does not recognize the Taliban government, has frozen funding for 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 within the ranks of the Taliban.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. 

• Taliban
• War
• Kabul
• Pakistan
• Terrorism
• Osama bin Laden
• Asia