Attacks on mosques

AFGHANISTAN: SUICIDE BOMBERS STRIKE AGAIN, KILLING AT LEAST 60

Bloody week, with more than 120 people already dead.

Kabul

Nearly 60 people were killed when suicide bombers blew themselves up in two separate mosque attacks in Afghanistan yesterday, officials said, capping a bloody week in the war-torn country.

In the first attack, on a Shiite mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, at least 39 people including women and children were killed and 45 others wounded when a suicide bomber exploded his device as worshippers gathered for evening prayer.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish confirmed the attack toll on Twitter.

“I was in the mosque bathroom when I heard a blast. I rushed inside the mosque and saw all the worshippers covered in blood,” Hussain Ali said.

“Some of the wounded were fleeing. I tried to stop someone to help me help the wounded but everyone was in a panic.”

In the second assault, a suicide bomber detonated himself in a Sunni mosque in the impoverished and remote central province of Ghor, killing at least 20 and wounding 10, Danish said.

A senior local police commander who is believed to have been the target of the attack in Dolaina district was among the dead, district governor Mohsen Danishyar said.

Danishyar put the death toll as high as 30.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the grisly attacks but recent assaults on Shiite mosques in Afghanistan have been carried out by Islamic State militants, who belong to the rival Sunni branch of Islam. –

Picture: AFP A man holds a portrait of Santiago Maldonado, an activist who disappeared two months ago and whose body is thought to have been found two days ago. Maldonado, 27, was last seen being detained by paramilitary police.