Suicide Bombers Attack Two Afghan Mosques, at Least 72 Dead

Suicide Bombers Attack Two Afghan Mosques, at Least 72 Dead
Afghan men inspect inside a Shi'ite Muslim mosque after last night's attack in Kabul, Afghanistan October 21, 2017. (Reuters/Omar Sobhani)
Reuters
10/21/2017
Updated:
10/21/2017

KABUL—Suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 72 people including children, officials and witnesses said.

One bomber walked into a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the capital Kabul as people were praying on Friday night and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers there, Mahmood Shah Husaini, said.

At least 39 people died in the blast at the Imam Zaman mosque in the city’s western Dasht-e-Barchi district, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, but a statement from the group did not provide evidence to support its claim.

Shi'ite Muslims have suffered a series of attacks in Afghanistan in recent months, many of them claimed by the Sunni Muslim terrorists of ISIS.

Separately, a suicide bombing killed at least 33 people at a mosque in central Ghor province, a police spokesman said.

The attack appeared to target a local leader from the Jamiat political party, according to a statement from Balkh provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, a leading figure in Jamiat.

No one immediately claimed responsibility.

By Hamid Shalizi. Additional reporting by Jalil Ahmad Rezaee. Writing by Josh Smith.