Afganistan witnessed the death of more than 70 people, when twin bombs went off in 2 mosques, government officials said. A suicide bomber killed at least 39 people and injured 45 more when he detonated his explosives among some 100 worshipers in a Shia mosque in the western part of the capital. Some of the victims were reportedly shot after the blast on Friday evening.
The second bomb went off in central Ghor province, where another suicide bomber killed 33 worshippers in a Sunni mosque, purportedly targeting a local commander from the anti-Taliban Jamiat party, said police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal Nizami.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack.
The attacks came in a deadly week for Afghans, in which nearly 200 people have been killed, the majority civilians. After 74 people died on Tuesday in a wave of Taliban attacks across the country, 43 soldiers were killed by bomb-strapped Humvees in a pre-dawn attack in Kandahar on Thursday.
The violence comes as the US president, Donald Trump, seeks to escalate the American war in Afghanistan, and as the US ramps up drone strikes against militants in tribal areas on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.
The bombing at Imam Zaman mosque in Kabul hit a city reeling from a series of assaults against the country’s Shia minority.
In late September, suicide militants disguised as shepherds killed five people gathered to mark Ashura, one of the holiest days on the Shia calendar. They were prevented from entering a mosque by neighbourhood guards armed with some of the estimated 500 weapons the government has handed to civilians to protect Shia mosques in the capital.
Post Your Comments