Kabul Mosque Blast: 50 Dead, Dozens Injured

By Staff, Agencies

At least 50 people have been killed and dozens wounded in an explosion at a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul, its leader said, just a day after two separate bomb explosions rocked the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The blast rocked the Khalifa Aga Gul Jan Mosque, as hundreds of worshipers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Sayyed Fazil Agha, the head of the mosque, said a presumed assailant walked in and detonated explosives.

“Black smoke rose and spread everywhere, dead bodies were everywhere,” he told in the blast scene, adding that he had lost several relatives.

“The blast was very loud, I thought my eardrums were cracked,” Mohammad Sabir, a resident in the area, said, adding that he had seen people being loaded into ambulances after the explosion.

In a statement immediately after the blast, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the blast and warned the perpetrators that they would be found and punished.

The development came after an explosion hit two minibuses in Mazar-i-sharif and killed nine people and injured 13 others.

Earlier, another major Shia mosque in the northern city had been the target of a bomb attack claimed by the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for “ISI” / “ISIL”] terrorist group, which killed dozens of worshipers.

A wave of deadly bombings has rocked Afghanistan over the past two weeks during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The Taliban took power in Afghanistan on August 15 last year amid a chaotic US troop withdrawal from the war-torn country.