Dozens dead in attack on Shiite mosque in Kabul — “A suicide bomber entered the mosque in Police District 13 of Kabul city. The attacker opened fire on worshippers.”

AFP

.

© Noorullah Shirzada, AFP | Afghan policemen stand guard on September 29 at the site of a suicide bomb attack near a Shiite mosque in Kabul.

Text by FRANCE 24 

Latest update : 2017-10-20

A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people inside a Shiite mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul late on Friday, an interior ministry official said, the latest in a string of attacks targeting the country’s Shiite minority.

“Investigative teams have been deployed. The cause and nature of the explosion have not been determined yet,” a spokesperson for the interior ministry told AFP.

The attack occurred at Imam Zaman mosque in the western Dasht-e-Barchi part of Kabul as Shiite worshippers gathered for Friday prayers.

A senior security official said the exact number of casualties was unknown but that security forces at the scene had removed at least 30 bodies.

Officials later said that the bomber had first opened fire at the mosque.

“A suicide bomber entered the mosque in Police District 13 of Kabul city. The attacker opened fire on worshippers,” Kabul crime branch chief General Mohammad Salim Almas told AFP.

Afghanistan‘s Shiite population has been heavily hit this year, with at least 84 people killed and 194 wounded in attacks on mosques and religious ceremonies, according to a United Nations report released last week.

Earlier attacks targeted mosques in Kabul in August and September.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

Advertisements

Tags: Afghanistan, bombing, Dasht-e-Barchi, Friday prayers, Kabul, Shi’ite mosque