At least nine Afghans were killed and 41 other received injuries after a car bomb targeted them when they were leaving a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul after Friday prayers.
The blast took place nearby the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, located in a high-profile diplomatic neighborhood, and several children are among the wounded.
Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the suicide car was parked by the roadside near the mosques and was detonated when the worshipper coming out.
The Italian Emergency Hospital, one of Kabul’s clinics that treated the victims, said they received 14 casualties from, with four dead on arrival.
Targeting worshippers a “unforgivable crime”
Kabul police spokesman, Khalid Zadran said that it was an intention attack against the worshippers.
The Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that targeting mosques and worshippers is an “unforgivable crime”. He called on the residents to cooperate with the security forces to eliminate the criminals.
“It was a big explosion. I saw several people lying on the ground,” an eyewitness, Noor Ahmad, told Harici.
Harici correspondent reporting from Kabul said that Taliban forces cordoned off the area and no one was allowed to get closer to the site of the blast.
Police were desperate because the casualties were too much. Police also seemed to be helping to shift the wounded into ambulance and also used their own vehicles to immediately evacuate them to the hospital.
Former President Hamid Karzai called the blast as a “terrorist act” which was against the Islamic and human principles.
The US embassy for Afghanistan said that Washington “strongly condemns today’s vicious attack on worshipers outside the Wazir Akber Khan mosque in Kabul.” It also labeled the attack against people professing their faith as “unjustifiable.”
Targeting mosques a new trend
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan just over a year ago.
IS is considered a top rival of the Taliban and had previously targeted mosques and worshippers, and especially members of minority Shiites in Kabul and provinces.
The last deadly attacks that targeted mosques in provinces of Balkh and Kunduz, had claimed the lives of hundreds of people.
