Blast kills more than 50 at Kabul mosque, its leader says
Apowerful explosion killed more than 50 worshippers after Friday prayers at a Kabul mosque, its leader said, the latest in a series of attacks on civilian targets in Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The blast hit the Khalifa Sahib Mosque in the west of the capital in the early afternoon, said Besmullah Habib, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry, who said the official confirmed death toll was 10, Reuters reported.
Sayed Fazil Agha, the head of the mosque, said someone they believed was a suicide bomber joined them in the ceremony and detonated explosives.
“Black smoke rose and spread everywhere, dead bodies were everywhere,” he told Reuters, adding that his nephews were among the dead. “I myself survived, but lost my beloved ones.”
Resident Mohammad Sabir said he had seen wounded people being loaded into ambulances.
“The blast was very loud, I thought my eardrums were cracked,” he said.
A health source said hospitals had received 66 dead bodies and 78 wounded people so far.
The United Nations’ mission to Afghanistan condemned the attack, with the latter saying it was part of an uptick in violence in recent weeks targeting minorities, adding that at least two U.N. staff members and their families were in the mosque at the time of the attack.
“No words are strong enough to condemn this despicable act,” said Mette Knudsen, the UN secretary general’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the ruling Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, released a statement condemning the blast and saying the perpetrators would be found and punished.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible.
Scores of Afghan civilians have been killed in recent weeks in blasts, some of which have been claimed by the Daesh terrorist group.
The Taliban say they have secured the country since taking power in August and largely eliminated Daesh’s local offshoot, but international officials and analysts say the risk of a resurgence in militancy remains.