Blast at Afghan mosque kills 62 during prayers
The explosion caused the roof to collapse as dozens of people gathered for Friday prayers. The attack underscored record-high civilian deaths in the country’s 18-year war
An explosion rocked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan as dozens of people gathered for Friday prayers, causing the roof to collapse and killing 62 worshippers, officials said.
Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar Province, said the militant attack wounded 36 others. He said it was not immediately clear if the mosque was attacked by a suicide bomber or by some other type of bombing.
Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, strongly condemned the attack. “The Afghan government strongly condemns today’s suicide attack in a mosque in Nangarhar province,” he tweeted. “The Taliban and their partners heinous crimes continue to target civilians in time of worship.”
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and Daesh are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially Nangarhar province.
However, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman in a statement condemned the attack in Nangarhar and called it a serious crime.
Zahir Adil, spokesman for the public health department in Nangarhar Province, said 23 of the wounded were transferred to Jalalabad, the provincial capital, and the rest were being treated in the Haskamena district clinic.
The violence comes a day after a UN report said that Afghan civilians are dying in record numbers in the country’s increasingly brutal war, noting that more civilians died in July than in any previous onemonth period since the UN began keeping statistics.
The report said that pro-government forces caused 2,348 civilian casualties, including 1,149 killed and 1,199 wounded, a 26 per cent increase from the same period in 2018.