Deadly blast targets mosque near Afghan interior ministry in Kabul

At least four people have been killed and 25 others wounded after a blast that hit a mosque in Kabul near Afghan interior ministry. 

"The mosque was used by visitors and sometimes by interior ministry employees," said interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor, who confirmed the casualty toll from Wednesday's explosion.

Italian NGO aid group Emergency, which runs a hospital in Kabul, said on Twitter that it had received 20 patients from the blast, two of whom were dead on arrival.

The interior ministry compound is in a secure area next to Kabul international airport.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

It comes after a suicide bombing on Friday killed 53 people in a Kabul classroom, including 46 girls and women, according to a UN death toll.

Witnesses said the attacker blew himself up in the women's section of a gender-segregated classroom of a study hall in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood – an enclave of the historically oppressed Shia Hazara community.

No group claimed responsibility for that attack, which Taliban authorities said claimed only 25 lives.

However, Daesh terrorists have carried out several deadly attacks in the same area targeting girls, schools and mosques.

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Decline in violence

The Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan last year brought a dramatic decline in violence.

The Taliban movement – made up primarily of ethnic Pashtuns – has pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security threats.

However, attacks have ramped up in recent months.

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