Blast hits Shiite mosque in Afghanistan's Kandahar; 33 killed, 73 injured

Image credit: PTI

Kabul: A large explosion tore through a Shi`ite mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during Friday prayers, killing at least 33 people and wounding 73, officials said, the second massive attack in a week targeting worshippers from the minority sect.

A local reporter in Kandahar told Reuters that eyewitnesses had described three suicide attackers, one of whom blew himself up at the entrance to the mosque with the two others detonating their devices inside the building.

"The situation is very bad. Mirwais hospital is messaging and calling on young people to give blood," he said, referring to a local hospital where dead and injured had been taken.

Photographs and mobile phone footage posted by journalists on social media showed many people apparently dead or seriously wounded on the bloody floor of the Imam Bargah mosque.

A health official gave figures of 33 dead and 73 wounded and said the final total could be higher. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. 

Qari Saeed Khosti said authorities were collecting details of the explosion, which took place days after Islamic State claimed a bombing at a Shiite mosque in the northern city of Kunduz that killed scores of people.

Nematullah Wafa, a former member of the local provincial council, said the blast occurred at the Imam Bargah mosque and caused heavy casualties but there were no immediate details.

The blast took place just days after an attack claimed by Islamic State militants, which killed scores of Shi`ite worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz. The full death toll from that attack has been estimated as high as 80.