WEB DESK
At least 62 people were killed and 68 are reported to be injured in after bomb blasts ripped through a mosque in Afghanistan’s Kandahar city on Friday, the official news agency Bakhtar reported.
According to a health official, the casualty toll is likely to rise.The bomb blast occurred during Friday prayers. The blast marked the second massive attack in a week targeting worshippers.
Taking to Twitter, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack and wrote: “The Islamic Emirate condemns the barbaric attack on civilians in a mosque in Kandahar. We have directed the security forces to find the perpetrators of such grave crimes as soon as possible and bring them to justice.”
“The Islamic Emirate also extends its deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” he added.
Photographs and mobile phone footage posted by journalists on social media showed many people apparently dead or seriously wounded on the bloody floor of the Imam Bargah mosque.
A health official gave figures of 33 dead and 73 wounded and said the final total could be higher. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Interior ministry spokesman Qari Saeed Khosti of the ruling Taliban movement said authorities were collecting details.
The blast took place just days after an attack claimed by Daesh militants, which killed scores of Shia worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz. The full death toll from that attack has been estimated as high as 80.
The embassy of Iran, Afghanistan’s neighbour and the region’s largest Shia power, condemned the attack.
“We hope Taliban leaders take decisive action against these wicked terrorist incidents,” it said in a tweet.