41 killed in Islamic State suicide bombing

AT LEAST 41 people died yesterday and another 84 were wounded in a bomb attack that devastated a Shia Muslim cultural centre in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Islamic State claimed responsibility, with the IS-linked Aamaq news agency saying three bombs were used in the assault as well as one suicide bomber.

The bomber blew himself up inside the centre, where scores of people had gathered to mark the anniversary of the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. Witnesses reported that as they fled, other explosions occurred outside the two-storey building, which also houses the pro-Iranian Afghan Voice news agency. It may also have been a target.

In its statement to Aamaq, IS said the centre was being funded by neighbouring Iran and used to propagate Shia beliefs. The attack is believed to be the latest by IS’s Afghanistan branch, which calls itself the Khorasan Province, on Shias.

The Sunni extremists of IS view Shias as apostates and proxies of Iran. They have stormed Shia mosques, killed worshippers as they knelt in prayer and gunned down elders on their way home.