Published on: 04/21/2022 – 15:21 The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the bloody attack on a Shiite mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, on Thursday. A final assessment reports at least twelve dead and dozens injured. At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured in an explosion that hit a Shiite mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan on Thursday (April 21st), two days after an attack on a school in a Shiite district of Kabul. “Eleven people died on the spot and another on the way to the hospital,” Ahmad Zia Zindani, spokesman for the health service of Balkh province, including Mazar-Mazar, told AFP. i-Sharif is the capital. A total of 58 people were injured, 32 of them seriously, he said. This attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group. “Caliphate soldiers managed to place a parcel bomb” inside the mosque, IS said in a statement on a Telegram channel. The ultra-radical Sunni group activated the bomb remotely as the mosque was packed with worshippers. In addition, at least four people were killed and 18 injured in Kunduz (north-east) in the explosion of a bomb placed on a bicycle, at the passage of a vehicle transporting civilian mechanics working for a Taliban military unit, provincial police spokesman Obaidullah Abedi told AFP. And in Kabul, an explosive device placed on the side of the road injured two children, according to the capital’s police. last August and the withdrawal of American troops, after 20 years of attrition against their military presence. Attacks, mainly claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan (EI-K), the regional branch of the IS, however, still occur regularly. On Tuesday, at least six people were killed and 24 injured in two explosions that hit a school for boys in a neighborhood of Kabul largely populated by members of the Shiite Hazara minority. The Hazara community, which represents between 10 and 20% of the Afghan population (about 40 million inhabitants), has been persecuted for a long time in this country with a Sunni majority. She has often been targeted by ISIS, who consider her a heretic, before and since the Taliban took power, which themselves had attacked her in the past. The Taliban try to minimize the threat of ISIS and wage a ruthless fight against the group, which they have been fighting for years. They multiplied raids, particularly in the eastern province of Nangharar, and arrested hundreds of men accused of being part of it. They now claim to have defeated EI-K, but analysts believe that the extremist group is still the main security challenge for the new Afghan power. This group is accused of having carried out or claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks. in recent years in Afghanistan. In May 2021, a series of explosions occurred in front of a school for girls in the same Shiite district of Kabul targeted on Tuesday, killing 85 people, mostly high school girls, and more than 300 injured. First a car bomb exploded in front of the school, then two more bombs followed as students rushed outside. IS, which claimed responsibility for an attack in October 2020 against an educational center (24 dead) in the same area, is strongly suspected of having carried out this attack. In this same neighborhood, in May 2020, a group of armed men had attacked a maternity hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières, killing 25 people, including 16 mothers, some about to give birth. This attack had not been claimed, but the United States had accused the IS of being responsible. With AFP