Kandahar mosque blast leaves dozens dead, UAE flays attack

KABUL: Suicide bombers atacked a Shiite mosque packed with worshippers atending Friday prayers in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 47 people and wounding 70, a Taliban official said. It was the deadliest day since the US military withdrawal.

The UAE has strongly condemned the deadly bombing.

The assault came just a week ater a suicide atack on Shiite worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz, which was claimed by Daesh group.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the carnage at the Fatimiya Mosque in Kandahar province.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation affirmed that the UAE expresses its strongest condemnation of these criminal acts, and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism that contradict human values and principles.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims as a result of this heinous crime, and wished a speedy recovery for all the injured.

“Today, on the blessed day of Friday, a brutal atack has been witnessed on a Shiite mosque as a result of which a huge number of our countrymen have lost their lives,” Kandahar police chief Maulvi Mehmood said.

In a video statement, Mehmood said security for the mosque had been provided by guards from the Shiite community but that henceforth the Taliban would take charge of its protection.

Hafiz Sayeed, the Taliban’s chief for Kandahar’s department of culture and information, said 47 people had been killed and at least 70 wounded in the atack.

At least 15 ambulances were seen rushing to and from the scene, as Taliban security threw a cordon around the area. “We are overwhelmed,” a doctor at the city’s central Mirwais hospital told AFP.

“There are too many dead bodies and wounded people brought to our hospital. We are expecting more to come. We are in urgent need of blood. We have asked all the local media in Kandahar to ask people to come and donate blood.”

Haji Sarwar Hazara, a local construction contractor who worships at the mosque and arrived soon ater the blast, said there had been at least three atackers. One atacked security guards at the entrance, allowing two suicide bombers to get into the mosque in the confusion.

“When I arrived at the mosque, I saw injured, dead bodies, and people who had fallen on top of each other,” he said, adding that he had seen the bodies of two atackers. “I do not know who did this work, it is the enemy of Islam. But they cannot bring differences among Muslims,” he said.

Photographs and mobile phone footage posted by journalists on social media showed many people apparently dead or seriously wounded on the bloody floor of the Imam Bargah mosque.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said security forces had been ordered to capture the perpetrators and bring them to justice under Islamic law.

Eyewitnesses spoke of gunfire alongside the explosions, and a security guard assigned to protect the mosque said three of his comrades had been shot as the bombers fought their way in.

Sayed Rohullah said: “It was the Friday prayer time, and when we were preparing I heard shots. Two people had entered the mosque.

“They had opened fire on the guards and in response the guards had also opened fire on them. One of them commited a suicide blast inside the mosque.”

Two more atackers detonated their bombs in crowded areas outside the main building, he and other witnesses said.

“We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” tweeted Taliban interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti.

Murtaza, who like many Afghans goes by one name, said he was inside the mosque during the atack and reported four explosions: two outside and two inside. He said Friday prayers at the mosque typically draw hundreds of people.

Another witness, also named Murtaza, was in charge of security at the mosque and said he saw two bombers. He said one detonated explosives outside the gate, and the other was already among the worshippers inside the mosque.

He said the mosque’s security personnel shot another suspected atacker outside.

Video footage showed bodies scatered across bloodstained carpets, with survivors walking around in a daze or crying out in anguish.

The embassy of Iran condemned the atack. “We hope Taliban leaders take decisive action against these wicked terrorist incidents,” it said in a tweet.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said those responsible should be held to account.