IS claim mosque bombing, Taliban vow better security
Taliban officials claim 47 people were killed in the second such attack on Shias in Afghanistan, claimed by the Islamic State
KABUL: Taliban authorities pledged to step up security at Shia mosques as hundreds of people gathered on Saturday to bury the victims of the second Islamic State suicide attack on worshippers in a week.
Hardline Sunni group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing on the mosque in southern Afghanistan that killed 47 people and wounded scores more. Relatives laid the bodies of the victims to rest on Saturday and called on the Taliban to protect them.
IS said in a statement posted late on Friday on social media that two of the group’s members shot and killed security guards manning the entrance of the Fatimiya mosque in Kandahar province. One detonated his explosives at the entrance of the mosque and the other inside.
IS’s news agency Amaq in a statement gave the names of the attackers as Anas al-Khurasani and Abu Ali al-Baluchi, both Afghan nationals.
The families of the victims Saturday dug their graves and carried the bodies to their final resting place. In total, 63 graves were dug, but the Taliban’s chief for the provincial department of culture and information maintained the official death toll was 47. “There are so many who have lost body parts, and among those in hospital in serious condition, I don’t know how many more numbers will be added to the death toll,” said community elder Hajji Farhad.
Shia leader Sayed Mohammed Agha called on the Taliban government to take serious measures to protect the Shiite minority, “because our enemies will harm our society by any means they can”.
The attack came a week after a bombing claimed by the local Islamic State affiliate killed 46 people at a Shiite mosque in northern Afghanistan, raising fears that IS - an enemy of both the Taliban and the West - is expanding its foothold in
Afghanistan.
Friday’s attack was the deadliest to strike Afghanistan since the dramatic US exit from the country, which allowed the Taliban to seize control of the Afghan capital. It was also the first major attack by the group in the country’s south.
IS carries out frequent attacks in its eastern stronghold, but recently has shown signs of expansion, with attacks in the north and Kabul.
The attacks have brought into question the Taliban’s ability to counter the growing IS threat.
The Taliban have pledged to restore peace and security after decades of war and have also given the US assurances that they will not allow the country to be used as a base for launching extremist attacks on other countries.
The head of Kandahar police said units would be assigned to protect the Shi’ite mosques which have so far been guarded by local volunteer forces with special permission to carry weapons.
“Unfortunately they could not protect this area and in future we will assign special security guards for the protection of mosques and Madrasas,” he said
The Pentagon has offered unspecified condolence payments to the family of 10 civilians who were killed in a botched US drone attack in Afghanistan in August during the final days before American troops withdrew from the country.
The US defence department said it made a commitment that included offering “ex-gratia condolence payments”, in addition to working with the US state department in support of the family members who were interested in relocation to the US.
Colin Kahl, the US under secretary of defence for policy, held a virtual meeting on Thursday with Steven Kwon, the founder and president of Nutrition & Education International, the aid organization that employed Zemari Ahmadi, who was killed in the August 29 drone attack, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said late on Friday.
Ahmadi and others who were killed in the strike were innocent victims who bore no blame and were not affiliated with Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) or threats to US forces, Kirby said.
The drone strike in Kabul killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children.
The Pentagon had said earlier that the August 29 strike targeted an Islamic State suicide bomber who posed an imminent threat. However, reports had emerged almost immediately that the drone strike in a neighbourhood west of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport had killed civilians including children.