3 yıl önce

Deaths as multiple blasts rock Afghanistan

At least 10 people were killed and 40 others wounded in a blast inside a Shia mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, while two other explosions targeted Kunduz and Kabul.

AP

The blasts took place two days after deadly explosions targeting a school in a Shia Hazara neighbourhood of Kabul.

A series of explosions across Afghanistan have killed at least 10 people and wounded scores more, according to police and hospital officials.

Thursday’s attacks mostly targeted the country’s minority Shia Muslims and have all the hallmarks of the Daesh terrorist group affiliate that operates in South and Central Asia.

The worst of the three attacks occurred in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif where at least 10 worshippers were killed as they knelt in prayer, said Dr Ghawsuddin Anwari, head of the main hospital in northern Mazar-e-Sharif.

Another 40 worshippers were injured. They were brought in ambulances and private cars.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement on the group's Telegram channel.

The explosion at the Sai Doken mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif occurred as Muslims marked the holy month of Ramadan, when the people fast from sunrise to sunset.

Earlier Thursday in the capital Kabul, a roadside bomb exploded and injured two children. That bomb also targeted the country's minority Shias, striking in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul, dominated by Afghanistan's minority Shia Muslims.

A third explosion on Thursday occurred in the northern Kunduz province and struck a vehicle carrying mechanics contracted by the ruling Taliban, according to Matiullah Rohani, head of information and culture in Kunduz province.

Greatest security challenge

Thursday's series of deadly explosions comes after months of relative calm in Afghanistan and after a crackdown against the Daesh affiliate by the country's Taliban rulers in the first months following their sweep to power.

The Daesh affiliate, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2014, is seen as the greatest security challenge facing the country's Taliban rulers.

Following their August takeover, the Taliban launched a sweeping crackdown against the Daesh headquarters in eastern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, advocates for the minority Hazaras called for a stop to the killings. Hazaras, who make up around 9 percent of the population of Afghanistan's 36 million people, stand-alone in being targeted because of their ethnicity - distinct from the other ethnic groups, such as Tajik and Uzbek and the Pashtun majority - and their religion.

The Daesh affiliate has previously targeted schools, particularly in the Shia-dominated Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood.

In May last year, months before the Taliban took power in Kabul, more than 60 children, mostly girls, were killed when two bombs were detonated outside their school, also in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood.

Dasht-e-Barchi and other parts of western Kabul are houses to the Shia minorities of Afghanistan which have mostly been targeted by the Daesh affiliate loyalists.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies