Kabul death toll mounts after suicide bomb attack
Print Edition
A suicide bomber killed more than 30 people and wounded dozens yesterday in an explosion at a crowded Shiite mosque in Kabul, officials said, the third major attack on minority Shiites in the Afghan capital since July.
The attacker entered the Baqir-ul-Olum mosque soon after midday as worshippers gathered for Arbaeen, a Shiite ritual marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.
The United Nations said at least 32 had been killed and more than 50 wounded, including many children. It described the attack as “an atrocity.”
“I saw people screaming and covered in blood,” one survivor told Afghanistan’s Ariana Television, adding that around 40 dead and 80 wounded had been taken from the building before rescue services arrived.
Another witness said he had helped to carry up to 35 bodies from the mosque.
Bloody sectarian rivalry between Sunni and Shiite Muslims has been relatively rare in Afghanistan, a majority Sunni country, but the attack underlines the deadly new dimension that growing ethnic tension could bring to its decades-long conflict.
Already there had been two major recent attacks on Shiite targets in Kabul, both claimed by Islamic State.
One was on a demonstration by the mainly Shiite Hazara community in July which killed more than 80 people, in the deadliest attack on civilians since 2001. Last month, 18 people were killed when a gunman in police uniform opened fire on worshippers gathered at a shrine in Kabul for Ashura, one of the holiest occasions in the Shiite calendar.
In addition, at least 14 people were killed in an attack on a Shiite mosque in northern Balkh province, for which no group has so far claimed responsibility.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday’s attack.
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