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dpa
Islamabad
The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shiite mosque in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on Friday that left at least 47 people dead.
A statement posted by the group’s Amaq news agency said that two Islamic State suicide bombers killed the mosque security guards before detonating their explosive vests in the middle of a crowd of over 300 people attending Friday prayers.
The state-run Bakhtar news agency initially reported a death toll of 32, but a local Taliban official told dpa on Saturday that the death toll had risen to 47 and that there had been at least 70 people injured in the blast. The attack on the Imam Bargah mosque is the second deadly explosion at a Shiite religious site in Afghanistan within a week.
A suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz killed more than 40 worshippers a week ago. That attack was also claimed by Islamic State.
The Taliban and Islamic State are bitter rivals in
Afghanistan.
Islamabad
The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shiite mosque in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on Friday that left at least 47 people dead.
A statement posted by the group’s Amaq news agency said that two Islamic State suicide bombers killed the mosque security guards before detonating their explosive vests in the middle of a crowd of over 300 people attending Friday prayers.
The state-run Bakhtar news agency initially reported a death toll of 32, but a local Taliban official told dpa on Saturday that the death toll had risen to 47 and that there had been at least 70 people injured in the blast. The attack on the Imam Bargah mosque is the second deadly explosion at a Shiite religious site in Afghanistan within a week.
A suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz killed more than 40 worshippers a week ago. That attack was also claimed by Islamic State.
The Taliban and Islamic State are bitter rivals in
Afghanistan.
