Deadly blast hits Shia mosque in Afghanistan’s Kandahar

Deadly blast went off inside a Shia mosque in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar and over 47 people have been killed and 70 others wounded according to a Taliban official.

TheIslamic State of Kharasan Province (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack.

The armed group said in a statement, “The first suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in an a mosque hallway, while the second suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the mosque’s centre.”

The group’s affiliate in Afghanistan had also claimed responsibility for a similar bombing attack that killed scores of Shia worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz a week earlier.

Interior ministry spokesman Sayed Khosti said, “We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shia brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded.”

“Taliban special forces arrived in the area to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice,” he added.

Kamila/Al-Jazeera