The capital of Afghanistan has again been hit by violence. At least 21 people were killed in an explosion at a mosque in Kabul on Wednesday, according to hospitals and the police.
” Yesterday [mercredi], an explosion occurred in a mosque during evening prayers (…). As a result, 21 of our citizens died as martyrs and 33 were injured,” Kabul Police spokesman Khalid Zadran said in a statement, adding that “explosives” had been planted in the mosque.
Injuries “from shrapnel from a bomb”
“Most of the patients we admitted after the blast are suffering from shrapnel injuries and burns,” said Italian NGO Emergency, which operates at a hospital in Kabul, and said it had admitted 27 victims, three of whom died be. The NGO later added in a tweet that five children were among those treated, including a seven-year-old.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the blast and asked for “prayers for the martyrs” and promised the “killers” would be “punished soon”. This attack comes almost a week after the deaths of a Taliban cleric and his brother in a suicide bombing at a madrasa in Kabul, claimed by the Islamic State organization (IS).
The Taliban say they defeated ISIS
Since the Taliban came to power a year ago, the number of attacks in Afghanistan has decreased, but they have not stopped. Several deadly attacks occurred in August, most notably in late April, during the holy month of Ramadan, and a series of bomb blasts also hit the country in late May, killing dozens of people.
Most of these attacks have been claimed by ISIS, which targets mainly Afghan Shia, Sufi and Sikh religious minorities, but also the Taliban. The latter claim to have defeated ISIS in the country and arrested dozens of jihadists, but analysts believe the extremist group still poses the biggest security challenge for the new Afghan power.