Bomber targets Islamic scholars
Afghanistan
At least 50 people were killed and 72 wounded on Tuesday, local time, when a suicide bomber struck a Kabul wedding hall where Islamic religious scholars had gathered to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, the Afghan Public Health Ministry said.
Witnesses told Afghan news media that at least 1000 people were packed inside the Uranus Wedding Hall when the assailant detonated the explosives shortly after 6pm.
Dozens of ambulances raced to the venue, located just west of Kabul’s international airport along a stretch of road with several large, brightly lit wedding halls that also host other religious and social events.
The death toll rose steadily throughout the evening as many who had been critically wounded died of their injuries at hospitals.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on Islamic State extremists, who have previously attacked religious gatherings.
In June, an Islamic State suicide bomber in Kabul attacked a gathering of religious scholars just as the group issued an edict condemning such attacks as ‘‘unforgivable sins.’’ At least seven people were killed and 20 wounded.
One of the lead clerics in the gathering was a Sufi, a member of a Muslim religious order that Islamists regard as heretics. Last year, an Islamic State suicide bomber attacked a revered Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan, killing at least 72 people.
Pentagon officials believe that the number of Islamic State loyalists in Afghanistan is only several hundred, but they have survived an intense Us-led bombing campaign in the country’s rugged east and continue to carry out major attacks in Kabul, often targeting religious minorities. – Los Angeles Times