KABUL: At least seven people were killed and more than 40 injured on Friday when an explosion near a mosque in the Afghan capital occurred as worshipers were pouring out afternoon prayers, police said.
The blast was the latest in a series of deadly attacks targeting Friday prayers at mosques in recent months, some by the self-proclaimed Islamic State militant group.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said: “After praying, when people wanted to get out of the mosque, an explosion happened. “All casualties are civilians.”
He later confirmed the death toll at seven, including children, and said 41 people had been injured.
The emergency hospital run by an Italian NGO said it received 14 people injured in the blast, four of whom died on arrival.
“Worried by today’s Kabul explosion and learned of the … (casualty) that this explosion has caused,” Raffaella Iodice, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan said in a tweet.
The blast happened in Wazir Akbar Khan, an area that was formerly home to the city’s “green zone” – home to many foreign and NATO embassies – but now controlled by the ruling Taliban.
The mosque has been a target in the past, including an explosion in June 2020 – before the Taliban returned to power – that killed its pope and wounded several.
The blast was the latest in a series of deadly attacks targeting Friday prayers at mosques in recent months, some by the self-proclaimed Islamic State militant group.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said: “After praying, when people wanted to get out of the mosque, an explosion happened. “All casualties are civilians.”
He later confirmed the death toll at seven, including children, and said 41 people had been injured.
The emergency hospital run by an Italian NGO said it received 14 people injured in the blast, four of whom died on arrival.
“Worried by today’s Kabul explosion and learned of the … (casualty) that this explosion has caused,” Raffaella Iodice, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan said in a tweet.
The blast happened in Wazir Akbar Khan, an area that was formerly home to the city’s “green zone” – home to many foreign and NATO embassies – but now controlled by the ruling Taliban.
The mosque has been a target in the past, including an explosion in June 2020 – before the Taliban returned to power – that killed its pope and wounded several.
