At least 12 killed in attack on Shia mosque in Afghanistan

Kabul, Apr 21 (EFE).- At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured on Thursday in an attack against a Shia mosque in northern Afghanistan, the second attack against the minority community within a week during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The explosion took place during the afternoon prayer at a Shia mosque in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of the Balkh province, the provincial director of information and culture Molavi Mohammad Norani told EFE.

The director of the regional Abu Ali Sina hospital, Ghousuddin Anwari, told EFE that 12 people had been killed in the attack and 35 were injured as per latest information, with 8 of the wounded suffering serious injuries.

The attack is the second one this week against the Shia minority in Afghanistan, after on Tuesday a series of bombings struck two schools in the Dashte Barchi neighborhood of western Kabul – dominated by the mostly Shia Hazara community – in which at least 6 people were killed and 25 injured.

However, several activists have claimed that the number of victims in the Kabul bombings could be much higher than the figures released by the Taliban.

Although no group has owned responsibility for the attacks so far, the bombings bore the signature of the Islamic State (IS) military network that usually claims attacks against Shia Muslims, who they consider apostates.

In October, bombings against Shia mosques in Kunduz (north) and Kandahar (south) provinces on successive Fridays killed 80 and 60 people respectively.

In the last such attack, on Apr. 6 a grenade was thrown at an important Shia mosque in Kabul, killing one person and injuring five others.

Earlier, a bomb attack near a secondary school for girls, also situated in a Shia-Hazara area in Kabul, had killed more than 100 in May 2021. EFE

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