Kabul, Afghanistan — A bomb attack in a mosque in the Afghan The capital of Kabul during Wednesday evening prayers killed at least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, and injured at least 27, an eyewitness and police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest to hit the country in the year since the Taliban took power. Several children were reportedly among the injured.
The local Islamic State affiliate has stepped up attacks targeting the Taliban and civilians since the former insurgents seized power last August, when US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their withdrawal from the country. Last week, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killing of a prominent Taliban cleric at its religious center in Kabul.
According to an eyewitness, a resident of the Kher Khanna district of the city where the Siddiquiya mosque was targeted, the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber. The cleric killed was Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabuli, the eyewitness said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He added that more than 30 other people were injured. Kabul’s Italian Emergency Hospital said at least 27 injured civilians, including five children, had been brought there from the site of the blast.
Ebrahim Noroozi / AP
Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for Kabul’s police chief, confirmed an explosion inside a mosque in northern Kabul but did not provide a death toll or death toll and injuried people.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also condemned the blast and promised that “the perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and punished.”
It was feared that the number of victims could increase further. On Thursday morning, a witness to the blast who gave his name as Qyaamuddin told The Associated Press he believed up to 25 people were killed in the blast.
“It was time for the evening prayer, and I was attending the prayer with others, when the blast happened,” Qyaamuddin said. Some Afghans have only one name.
AP reporters were able to see the blue-roofed Sunni mosque from a nearby hill. The Taliban parked police trucks and other vehicles at the mosque.
A US-led invasion toppled the previous Taliban government, which hosted al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Since regaining power, the former insurgents have faced a crippling economic crisis since the international community, which does not recognize the Taliban government, froze funding to the country.
Separately, the Taliban confirmed on Wednesday that they had captured and killed Mehdi Mujahid in the western province of Herat as he attempted to cross the border into Iran.
Mujahid was a former Taliban commander from Balkhab district in the northern province of Sar-e-Pul and the only member of the Shia Hazara minority community among the Taliban ranks.
Mujahid had turned against the Taliban over the past year after opposing decisions made by Taliban leaders in Kabul.