Kabul: A bomb exploded Friday inside a mosque in western Kabul, killing at least four people, including the prayer leader, and wounding eight, an Afghan government official said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said the bomb had been placed inside the mosque but had no additional details. Police cordoned off the area and helped move the wounded to ambulances and nearby hospitals.
No one took immediate responsibility but a mosque attack earlier this month was claimed by the Islamic State group’s affiliate. The Taliban issued a statement condemning the attack and calling the death of the prayer leader a great crime.
Azizullah Mofleh Frotan was among the city’s more prominent prayer leaders.
Violence has spiked in recent weeks in Afghanistan, with most of the attacks claimed by the IS affiliate, headquartered in the eastern Nangarhar province. Earlier this month, IS planted explosives at a mosque in Kabul’s posh Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, killing the prayer leader there and wounding eight others.
The United States blamed the IS affiliate for a horrific attack last month on a maternity hospital in Kabul that killed 24 people, including two infants and several new mothers. The hospital was located in the city’s Shiite-dominated area of Dasht-e-Barchi.
The IS group, which reviles Shiites as heretics, has declared war on the country’s minority Shiite Muslims, but has also attacked Sunni mosques. The mosque targeted on Friday is Sunni.
The IS affiliate also took responsibility for an attack on a bus carrying journalists in Kabul on May 30, killing two. It also claimed credit for an attack on the funeral of a warlord loyal to the government last month that killed 35 people. (AP)
