At least 5 Dead, 65 Injured in Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif Mosque Explosion

By Staff, Agencies

An explosion at a mosque in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif has caused several deaths and injuries, according to a local Taliban commander.

According to local media sources, at least five people were killed and many others injured in a blast that hit a mosque in northern Afghanistan on Thursday.

The blast took place at a Shiite mosque, Zabihullah Noorani, head of the Balkh province information department, told the Associated Press.

The explosion occurred at the Seh Dokan mosque located in a busy area of Mazar-e-Sharif, Tolo News quoted sources as saying.

Quoting an official from the local Abu Ali Sina Balkhi District Hospital, it said 65 people were injured, who are being treated at the facility.

In another attack on Thursday, a roadside bomb wounded at least two children in the Afghan capital, Kabul police said.

Police spokesman Khalid Zadran said in a tweet that the explosives went off in the median strip of a road in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in western Kabul. Several explosions targeted educational institutions in the same area two days earlier, killing at least six people, mostly children, and wounding 17 others.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s explosion.