12 killed in Kabul Mosque bombing
Monitoring Desk:
At least 12 people killed in a deadly bomb explosion in Kabul, the Afghan capital during Friday prayer. The worshipers had gathered during Eid ul Fitr prayer amid ceasefire.
Ferdous Faramarz, a spokesman for the Kabul police, said the mosque’s Imam was among the 12 dead and that at least 15 people were wounded in the blast at a mosque in the capital’s Shakar Dara district.
The blast came less than a week after an explosion at a school killed 80 people, most of them schoolgirls from the ethnic Hazara Shia minority. The Taliban also denounced that attack and no one claimed responsibility.
US officials believe the attack on the school may have been the work of a rival militant group such as the Islamic State. Such groups have not signed on to the holiday ceasefire.
The government and the Taliban have been holding political talks to try to end their conflict as Washington pulls its troops out 20 years after US bombing forced the Taliban from power. Both sides at the talks have accused the other of provoking and failing to halt attacks against civilians.
“Today’s attack on a mosque in Shakar Dara district of Kabul during Friday prayer is completely opposing the idea of Eidul Fitr as a family holiday celebrated in peace,” the European Union’s mission in Afghanistan said on Twitter.
