Afghan mosque is hit by bomb blast during Friday prayers
More than a dozen killed in Afghan mosque bomb blast during Friday prayers – a week after ISIS suicide bomb attack killed at least 100
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
More than a dozen people have been killed and dozens more wounded after multiple bomb blasts hit a mosque in southern Afghanistan today.
Three explosions rocked a Shiite mosque in the city of Kandahar during Friday prayers, with witnesses saying one blast hit the main entrance and another in an area where worshippers wash themselves.
Early official tolls said 16 people were killed and 15 injured, though graphic footage from the scene reviewed by MailOnline suggests the final toll will be higher.
It is not yet clear what caused the explosions, but it comes a week after a bomb attack on Shiite worshippers in the northern city of Kunduz that killed 100.
That attack was claimed by ISIS-K, the terror group’s Afghanistan branch, which has stepped up its activities in the country since the Taliban retook control in August.
Another witness said three blasts rocked the mosque in the centre of the town during Friday prayers, the busiest congregation of the week.
Interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti tweeted: ‘We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded.
‘Special forces of the Islamic Emirate have arrived in the area to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.’
According to an AFP journalist the mosque was full of people at the time of the explosions, and at least 15 ambulances went to the scene.
Graphic images posted to social media, which could not be immediately verified, showed bodies lying on the floor of the Fatemieh mosque.
