Suicide attacks on Afghan mosques kill 72

SECURITY FORCES WILL STEP UP FIGHT TO ELIMINATE TERRORISTS, PRESIDENT SAYS

S uicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least 72 people including children, officials and witnesses said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned both attacks and said that the country’s security forces would step up the fight to “eliminate the terrorists who target Afghans of all religions and tribes.”

One bomber walked into a mosque in the capital Kabul as people were praying yesterday and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers there, Mahmood Shah Husaini, said. At least 39 people died in the blast at the Imam Zaman mosque in the city’s western Dasht-e-Barchi district, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

Separately, a suicide bombing killed at least 33 people at a mosque in central Ghor province, a police spokesman said.

The attack appeared to target a local leader from the Jamiat political party, according to a statement from Balkh provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, a leading figure in Jamiat.

In his statement, Ghani said the day’s attacks show that “the terrorists have once again staged bloody attacks but they will not achieve their evil purposes and sow discord among the Afghans.”