Explosion at mosque in Afghanistan leaves dozens dead and adds to series of attacks

A day after Islamic State attacks left dozens dead and injured in Afghanistan, a new explosion hit a Sunni mosque during prayers on Friday (22) in Kunduz, in the north of the country.

At least 20 people were killed or injured, according to Qadri Badri, the provincial leader, and who was responsible for the attack is still unclear.

On Thursday, a series of explosions hit the entire country, and two of the attacks were claimed by IS. One was at a Shia mosque in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, which killed at least 12 people and injured 58, according to the latest toll. The fundamentalists claimed to have placed a bag of explosives inside the mosque and activated the device when the place was full of worshipers.

The Taliban announced the arrest of an alleged member of the group, accused of having planned the attack. An Afghan man identified as Abdul Hamid Sangaryar has been detained, Asif Waziri, spokesman for the police in Balkh province, of which Mazar-e-Sharif is the capital, told AFP.

“He is the mastermind of yesterday’s attack [quinta] against the mosque,” said Waziri, who presented him as an important cadre of IS.

The group’s other action on Thursday caused at least 11 casualties, including dead and wounded, in Kunduz, according to Najeebullah Sahel, the provincial health official. The target was a van of military mechanics, the Interior Ministry said.

The folder also added that a third explosion on Thursday in a street in the capital left three injured, including a child, but the author of this attack is not known.

The blasts happen during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Just this week, another attack destroyed a high school in a predominantly Shi’ite area of ​​the Hazara neighborhood in western Kabul, the capital, killing at least six people.

The Taliban rulers in Afghanistan say they have increased security in the country since they took power in August after the total withdrawal of US troops from the territory.

International officials and analysts say the risk of a resurgence of militancy remains, and the extremist group has since claimed several attacks.

The Taliban have tried to downplay the Islamic State threat and have fought the group for years. The terrorist group is accused of carrying out or claiming some of the most violent attacks in recent years in the country, such as the one in May 2021 in front of a school for girls in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul, which killed 85 people.

The Shia community, a religious minority in Afghanistan, is often targeted by Sunni militant groups such as the Islamic State.

The group is also suspected of being behind the attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul in May 2020, in which 25 people died, including women who were close to giving birth.