The attacker detonated his
explosives at the Shia Baqer-ul-uloom mosque in west Kabul [Reuters]
·
ISIL
claims suicide attack inside Baqir-ul-uloom mosque as Shia Muslims mark Arbaeen
period
A suicide
bomber has blown himself up inside a Shia mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul,
killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens of others.
The
explosion happened at the Baqer-ul-uloom mosque in the Darul Aman area as
people gathered to mark the end of an important religious period. Kabul police
chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told Al Jazeera 27 people were killed and many
others wounded, and the death toll was likely to rise.
Fraidoon
Obaidi, chief of the Kabul police Criminal Investigation Department, said the
bomber mingled among the crowd on the first floor of the two-story mosque where
he detonated his explosives.
"I heard a blast and dust covered the whole
mosque," worshipper Nadir Ali told AFP news agency. "When the dust
settled down, I saw the mosque was full of flesh and blood. I was injured in my
waist and had to crawl out of the mosque."
"A
martyrdom attack by an Islamic State fighter targets a Shiite husseiniya
[shrine] in the city of Kabul," the organization's Aamaq Agency says in a
newsflash.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said
earlier that 30 worshippers were killed and 40 injured in the attack on the
Baqir-ul Olum mosque.
Islamic State, which views Shiites
as heretics, previously claimed responsibility for an attack in early October
on a shrine in Kabul that killed 14 people and injured 30.
The United
Nations said in a statement at least 32 had been killed and more than 50
wounded, including many children. It described the attack as "an
atrocity".
President
Ashraf Ghani in a statement condemned the "barbaric" attack, calling it an "unforgivable act" and
a "great crime."
Chief executive
Abdullah Abdullah called the attack a "war crime."
"The suicide
bomber was wearing a shawl around him when he entered," said Sayed
Sulaiman, who was protected from the blast by a pillar in front of him. His
brother was wounded by shrapnel to his legs.
Sulaiman estimated
that the number of casualties was higher than official reports, adding that
"the mosque was full of people."
"I helped
carry at least 30 wounded and dead myself," he said.
Ali Hadi Loqman, another witness
who was standing across the road when the blast took place, blamed security
agencies for failing to provide adequate safety.
Several
police vehicles raced from the scene and ferried the wounded to hospital.
Worshippers were gathering to mark the Shia ceremony
of Arbaeen, which comes 40 days after the major festival of Ashura.
Afghan
security officers stand guard in front of a Shiite Muslims religous school
after a suicide bomb blast in Kabul, Afghanistan, 21 November 2016
Ashura commemorates the death of Imam Hussein,
grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was
killed in in battle in 680 AD. His fate laid the foundation for the faith
practised by the Shia community, a minority in mainly Sunni-Muslim Afghanistan.
Arbaeen marks the end of the mourning period over his death.
The ISIL group claimed responsibility for the attack in a
statement via its affiliated Amaq website, after the
Taliban said it was not involved. Earlier this year a powerful
blast targeting Shia worshippers during Ashura killed 14 people in northern
Afghanistan.
In July, ISIL group claimed responsibility for twin
explosions that ripped through crowds of Shia Hazaras in Kabul, killing at
least 85 people and wounding more than 400 others.
The bombings marked the deadliest single attack in the capital since the Taliban were ousted from power in the US-led invasion of 2001.
The bombings marked the deadliest single attack in the capital since the Taliban were ousted from power in the US-led invasion of 2001.
Shia Muslims in Afghanistan make up an estimated 15
percent of the country's population of about 30 million.
Their public celebrations and commemorations were
largely banned during the years when the Taliban controlled the country. But
Afghanistan's Shia community has become more public since the Taliban was
ousted.
Critics said the government needs to do more to
protect places of worship. "Given the level of Shia-Sunni polarisation in
the region, more tragic attacks of this sort are expected, while the Afghan
government resorts only to verbal condemnation of such acts," Al Jazeera's
Afghanistan analyst Hashmat Moslih said.
Amnesty International also took the government to
task. "[Afghan authorities] have a duty to take effective measures to
protect Shia Muslims from attacks," said Champa Patel, Amnesty's South
Asia director.
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