In Afghanistan, explosions and several dead in a Shiite mosque in Kandahar – archyworldys

At least 32 people were killed, and 53, injured, in explosions that occurred Friday, October 15, in a mosque in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, according to a doctor at the central hospital in that city. The explosion affected this Shiite place of worship, at the time of the great weekly prayer on Friday, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP) present on the spot.

“We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite brotherhood (…) from the city of Kandahar, in which a number of our compatriots were killed and wounded ”, for his part, tweeted the Taliban spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior, 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 at the place where believers come to do their ablution .

About fifteen ambulances attended, while Taliban security forces were deployed around the site, access to which remained blocked.

Several suicide attacks

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

These explosions occur a week later a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Kunduz (northeast), claimed by the organization Islamic State (IS), which had made about fifty victims. Five days earlier, another bombing of a mosque in Kabul, also claimed by ISIS, had killed five people.

Islamic State in Khorassan (EI-K), the local branch of the terrorist organization, claimed some of the deadliest attacks in recent years in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Including suicide bombings in mosques, hospitals and other public places. The group has, in particular, targeted Muslims it considers to be heretics, in particular the Shiites of the Hazara minority.