KABUL — A bomb blast in the Afghan capital ripped through
a Sunni mosque and killed at least 10 worshippers on Friday, interior ministry
officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks that have rocked the country
during the fasting month of Ramadan.
اضافة اعلان
Dozens of civilians have been killed in the
primarily sectarian attacks — some claimed by the Daesh — targeting members of
the Shiite and Sufi Muslim communities.
Grisly images of Friday’s blast posted on social
media showed survivors running out of the mosque, with some carrying victims
including children. Patches of blood could be seen on the floor of the mosque
compound.
“Many worshippers were at the Khalifa Sahib mosque
when the blast went off,” a survivor who gave his name as Ahmad told AFP.
“Many victims were thrown off their feet.”
The target of the blast appeared to be members of
the minority Sufi community who were performing rituals after completing Friday
prayers, an official said.
Bloodied casualties were ferried in ambulances and
vehicles to a hospital in central Kabul but Taliban fighters barred journalists
from accessing the facility.
Groups of women were crying outside the hospital and
near the mosque in an attempt to find their loved ones, an AFP correspondent
reported.
“Around 300 to 400 people were performing rituals
when the blast occurred,” said a resident from the area who only gave the name
Faraidun.
“I helped carry in vehicles 10 to 15 injured and
three who were killed. Many of the injured and martyred are still being
evacuated.”
Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said at
least 10 people were killed, while Kabul police said another 30 were injured.
“All of them had come to perform rituals when the
blast occurred,” Takor told AFP.
The deputy spokesman of the ministry Bismillah Habib
said the explosives had been placed inside the mosque.
‘Painful blow’
Friday’s attack came hours
after Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada praised the country’s
security apparatus in a message ahead of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday that marks the
end of Ramadan.
While he made no mention of the recent spate of
bombings, he said Afghanistan had been able to build “a strong Islamic and
national army,” as well as “a strong intelligence organization”.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan,
Ramiz Alakbarov, condemned the blast.
“Today’s blast ... is yet another painful blow to
the people of Afghanistan who continue to be exposed to unremitting insecurity
and violence,” he said in a statement.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid
tweeted that the perpetrators of the blast will be punished.
Later on Friday, municipal workers wearing orange
jumpsuits were deployed to clean the site, while gun-touting Taliban fighters
cordoned off the area.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the
attack.
Friday’s blast comes a day after two bombs on
separate minibuses killed at least nine people in the northern city of
Mazar-i-Sharif, targeting Shiite passengers heading home to break their Ramadan
fast.
A bomb at a Shiite mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif a week
earlier killed at least 12 worshippers and wounded scores more.
The regional branch of Daesh in Sunni-majority
Afghanistan has repeatedly targeted Shiites and minorities such as Sufis, who
follow a mystical branch of Islam.
Daesh is a Sunni Islamist group, like the Taliban,
but the two are bitter rivals.
The biggest ideological difference is that the Taliban
pursued an Afghanistan free of foreign forces, whereas Daesh wants an Islamic
caliphate stretching from Turkey to Pakistan and beyond.
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