Life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule
At least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, died during Wednesday night prayers at a mosque in the capital Kabul, witnesses and police said.
There was no immediate claim of liability for the attack. The latest attack came a year after the Taliban seized power.
Since the hijacking of former militants last August, local branches of the Islamic State group have launched attacks targeting the Taliban and civilians, as US and NATO forces were in the final stages of their withdrawal from the Taliban. Last week, IS claimed responsibility for the killing of a prominent Taliban cleric at a religious center in Kabul.
According to eyewitnesses, residents of the Kah Khanna district of the city where the Siddiqiyah Mosque was targeted, the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber. rice field. The cleric killed was Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabri, a witness said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He added that more than 30 of his others were wounded. The Italian emergency hospital in Kabul said at least 27 injured civilians, including five children, were transported there from the blast site.
Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Taliban-appointed Kabul police chief, confirmed the explosion inside a mosque in northern Kabul, but did not give the number of casualties or a breakdown of the dead and injured. rice field.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also condemned the blast, vowing that "the perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and punished."
Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, a US-led invasion overthrew the previous Taliban regime that had hosted al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Since regaining power, the former militants have faced a devastating economic crisis as the international community, which does not recognize the Taliban government, has frozen funding for the country.
Separately, the Taliban confirmed Wednesday that they had captured and killed Mehdi Mujahid, who was trying to cross the border into Iran in western Herat province.
Mujahid is a former Taliban commander in the Barqab district of northern Salepur province, a Shiite Hazara minority among Taliban cadres.He was the only member of the community.
The Mujahids had turned against the Taliban over the past year after opposing decisions by Taliban leaders in Kabul.
- In:
- Taliban
- War
- Kabul
- Pakistan
- Terrorism
- Osama bin Laden
- Asia
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