ISIS mosque horror
46 dead in Afghan suicide bomb blast
ISIS has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 46 worshippers and wounded dozens more Friday at a Shiite mosque in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz.
The local Islamic State affiliate, known as ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the blast at the Gozar-eSayed Abad Mosque on its Telegram channels, according to Reuters. The same group carried out the Aug. 26 bombing that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 American troops outside the Kabul airport in the final days of the chaotic US pullout.
Afghanistan’s state-run Bakhtar news agency said that at least 46 people had been killed and 143 others wounded, Reuters reported. However, two health officials told the outlet the death toll could rise to between 70 and 80.
Friday’s blast took place during midday prayers, the highlight of the Muslim religious week. It was the deadliest act of violence in the wartorn country since US and NATO forces pulled out after the Taliban took control in August.
Graphic footage showed bloodied bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque while blood stains covered the front steps. The explosion blew out windows, charred the ceiling and scattered debris and twisted metal across the floor.
Zalmai Alokzai, a businessman who rushed to the hospital to check whether doctors needed blood donations, described horrific scenes. “Ambulances were going back to the incident scene to carry the dead,” he told Agence FrancePresse.
A worker at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in the city told AFP: “Hundreds of people are gathered at the main gate of the hospital and crying for their relatives, but armed Taliban guys are trying to prevent gatherings in case another explosion is planned.”
A local teacher who lives near the mosque told the outlet several of her neighbors were killed and wounded.
“It was a very terrifying incident,” she said. “A 16-year-old neighbor was killed. They couldn’t find half of his body. Another neighbor who was 24 was killed as well.”
The worshippers targeted Friday were Hazaras, who have long suffered from double discrimination as an ethnic minority and as followers of Shiite Islam in a majoritySunni country. Earlier this week, a report by Amnesty International found the Taliban unlawfully killed 13 Hazaras, including a 17-year-old girl, in Daykundi province, after members of the Western-backed government’s security forces surrendered.
“This afternoon an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots … as a result of which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.