Friday turns deadly again for Afghanistan

Agencies | Kabul

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Friday had turned out deadly again for Afghans who hoped to pray peacefully amid the hardships brought forth by the US withdrawal and quick Taliban takeover.

At least 35 people lost their lives, and 68 suffered injuries in a massive explosion that tore through a mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during Friday prayers. It is also the second deadly attack in a week against worshippers.

The blast, claimed by Islamic State militants last week at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz, had killed as high as 80 worshippers. 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. Interior ministry spokesman Qari Saeed Khosti of the ruling Taliban movement said authorities were collecting details.

Taliban special forces arrived to secure the site and appealed to residents to donate blood for the wounded. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said security forces had been ordered to capture the perpetrators and bring them to justice under Islamic law.

Heinous Terrorist Act, says Bahrain 

Bahrain condemned in the strongest terms the suicide bombings in an Afghan mosque in Kandahar. Terming the attack as a “heinous terrorist act”, Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry statement said the attack “contradicts all religious and moral norms and principles.”

Bahrain expressed “deep condolences” and sympathy to the victims’ families and wished speedy recovery to those injured in the attack.

Bahrain said it “rejects violence, extremism and terrorism in all forms” and called for concerted international efforts to combat terrorism and dry up its funding sources.