Afghanistan: deadly explosion in Kandahar Shiite mosque at prayer time

Published on : 10/15/2021 – 11:30

At least seven people were killed and 13 injured in explosions that occurred on Friday (October 15) in a Shiite mosque in the city of Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, according to a medical source.

“So far, seven dead and 13 injured have been brought to our hospital,” a doctor at Kandahar Central Hospital told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

The explosion affected the Shiite place of worship, located in the center of the city, at the time of the big weekly prayer on Friday, noted an AFP journalist.

“We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite brotherhood (…) in the city of Kandahar, in which a number of our compatriots were killed and injured,” tweeted the Taliban spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Qari Sayed Khosti.

A witness, who requested anonymity, told AFP that he heard three explosions, one at the main door of the mosque, another in its southern part and the last where believers come to do their ablution.

About fifteen ambulances went there, while the Taliban security forces were deployed around the site, access to which remained blocked, the AFP journalist noted.

Early images from inside the mosque, which could not be immediately authenticated, showed bloody bodies lying on the floor of the Fatemieh Mosque, also known as the Imam Bargah Mosque.

These explosions come exactly one week after a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Kunduz (northeast), claimed by the Islamic State organization and which left dozens of victims.

With AFP