dead so far”,”text”:”Eleven people have died at the scene and another on the way to the hospital, making 12 dead so far”}}”>Eleven people died on the spot and another on the way to the hospital, leaving 12 dead so far
told theAFP Ahmad Zia Zindani, spokesperson for the health service of Balkh province, of which Mazar-i-Sharif is the capital.
A total of 58 people were injured, 32 of them seriously, he said.
This attack was claimed by theIS, in a statement on a Telegram channel. The ultra-radical Sunni group claimed to have placed a parcel bomb
inside the mosque and activating it remotely in the midst of the assembled worshipers.
A Shia mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif
Photo: Getty Images
Footage circulating on social media, the authenticity of which could not be independently verified, showed victims being taken to hospitals from the Seh Dokan mosque, where the floor was littered with shards of glass.
Passers-by came to the aid of bloodied victims and rescue workers escorted survivors out of the mosque, located near a market.
Relatives of victims seeking their loved ones arrived at hospitals in the city. Several residents also came to donate blood
underlined Mr. Zindani.
Attack in Kunduz
In addition, at least four people were killed and 18 injured in Kunduz (north-east) in the explosion of a bomb placed on a bicycle, at the passage of a vehicle transporting civilian mechanics working for a Taliban military unit, indicated to theAFP provincial police spokesman Obaidullah Abedi.
And in Kabul, an explosive device placed on the side of the road injured two children, according to the police in the capital.
Security has improved in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August and the withdrawal of American troops, after 20 years of attrition against their military presence.
Attacks, mainly claimed by the Islamic State Khorasan (EI-K), the regional branch of theIShowever, still occur regularly.
On Tuesday, at least six people were killed and 24 injured in two explosions that hit a boys’ school in a Kabul neighborhood largely populated by members of the Shia Hazara minority. This attack has not yet been claimed.
The Hazara community, which represents between 10 and 20% of the Afghan population (about 40 million inhabitants), has been persecuted for a long time in this country with a Sunni majority.
She was often targeted by theISwho considers her a heretic, before and since the seizure of power by the Taliban, who themselves attacked her in the past.
The Taliban are trying to minimize the threat of theEI-K and wage a ruthless fight against the group, which they have been fighting for years. They multiplied raids, particularly in the eastern province of Nangharar, and arrested hundreds of men accused of being part of it.
They claim now to have defeated theEI-Kbut analysts believe that the extremist group still poses the main security challenge for the new Afghan power.
This group is accused of having carried out or having claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in recent years in Afghanistan.
In May 2021, a series of explosions occurred in front of a school for girls in the same Shiite district of Kabul targeted on Tuesday, killing 85 people, mostly high school girls, and more than 300 injured.
First a car bomb exploded in front of the school, then two more bombs followed as students rushed outside. IS, which claimed responsibility for an attack in October 2020 against an educational center (24 dead) in the same area, is strongly suspected of having carried out this attack.
In this same neighborhood, in May 2020, a group of armed men attacked a maternity hospital supported by Médecins sans Frontières, killing 25 people, including 16 mothers, some of whom were about to give birth. This attack had not been claimed, but the United States had accused theIS to be responsible for it.
