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Thu, Mar

Heavy Explosion Hits Shia Mosque In Afghanistan

Middle East & Asia News
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Up to 32 worshippers were on Friday killed following an explosion that went off inside mosque in southern city during Juma'at prayers. 45 others have been wounded after the explosion went off inside a Shia mosque in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, according to public health officials in the province. The explosion on Friday afternoon took place in the Bibi Fatima mosque, the largest mosque for Shia worshippers in Kandahar city. 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. While referring to a local hospital where dead and injured had been taken he said, "The situation is very bad. Mirwais hospital is messaging and calling on young people to give blood."

It was gathered that Taliban special forces have secured the site and have asked people to donate blood to help the victims.

Interior ministry spokesman Sayed Khosti said on Twitter: "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."

Kandahar is Afghanistan's second largest city and the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, so an attack in the city by IS-K, which is extremely hostile towards the Taliban, would be significant.

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