At least 7 dead in Afghan mosque blast: medic

At least seven people were killed and 15 wounded when an explosion hit a Shia mosque in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday, a doctor told AFP.

“So far seven dead and 13 wounded have been brought to our hospital,” the medic in the southern city’s central hospital said.

The explosion caused heavy casualties, a spokesman of the Taliban government’s interior ministry said.

Qari Saeed Khosti said authorities were collecting details of the explosion, which took place days after a suicide bomb attack claimed by Islamic State on a Shia mosque in the northern city of Kunduz that killed scores of people.

“We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shia brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” he said in a tweet.

“Special forces of the Islamic Emirate have arrived in the area to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Photographs posted by journalists on social media showed many people apparently dead or seriously wounded on the floor of the mosque.

An eyewitness told AFP he heard three explosions, one at the main door of the mosque, another at a southern area, and a third where worshippers wash themselves.

Another witness said three blasts rocked the mosque in the centre of the town during Friday prayers.

Nematullah Wafa, a former member of the provincial council, said the blast occurred at the Imam Bargah and caused heavy casualties but there was no immediate confirmation of the number of dead and wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The blast, coming so soon after the Kunduz attack underlined the increasingly uncertain security in Afghanistan as Islamic State has stepped up operations following the Taliban victory over the Western-backed government in Kabul in August.

More to follow.