Kabul Mosque Bombing Kills 10, Including Prominent Cleric

Islamabad: At least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, were killed when a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul was bombed during a Wednesday evening service, witnesses and police said.

It is the latest attack on the country since the Taliban took power.

Local branches of the Islamic State group have stepped up attacks targeting the Taliban and civilians since the takeover of former militants last August as US and NATO forces were in the final stages of withdrawing from the country. Last week, IS claimed responsibility for the killing of a prominent Taliban cleric at a religious center in Kabul.

The explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber, according to witnesses, a resident of the city’s Her Khanna district, where the Siddiqiyah Mosque was targeted. The cleric killed was Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabri, a witness said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He added that more than 30 others were injured. The Italian emergency hospital in Kabul said at least 27 injured civilians, including five children, were transported there from the blast site.

Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Taliban-appointed Kabul Police Chief, confirmed the explosion inside a mosque in northern Kabul, but did not give the number of casualties or a breakdown of the dead and wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also condemned the blast, vowing that perpetrators of such crimes would soon be brought to justice and punished.

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, a US-led invasion overthrew the previous Taliban regime that hosted al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Since regaining power, the former militants have faced a devastating economic crisis as the international community, which has not recognized the Taliban government, has frozen funding to the country.

Separately, the Taliban confirmed Wednesday that they had captured and killed Mehdi Mujahid as he was trying to cross the border into Iran in western Herat province.

Mujahid is a former Taliban commander in the Balkhab district of northern Sar-e-Pul state and the only member of the Shiite Hazara community, a minority in the ranks of the Taliban.

Mujahid has turned his back on the Taliban for the past year after opposing a decision by Taliban leaders in Kabul.