Kabul mosque attacks leave 72 people dead

Suicide bombings at two Shi'ite mosques in Afghanistan have killed at least 72 people, with Islamic State claiming responsibility for one of them.

Suicide bombers have attacked two mosques in Afghanistan, killing at least 72 people including children.

The blasts happened at mosques in Kabul and the western province of Ghor on Friday and left the are devastated.

"It was a gruesome scene, bodies lying everywhere and blood on the walls," Rahmatullah Alizada, an eyewitness who helped in pulling out the injured from the mosque, told dpa.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, the group said in the statement, but didn't provide evidence to support its claim.

The tribal elders have been preparing for at least 50 bodies to be buried tomorrow with another 70 injured, Alizada said, adding: "I don't know how many of them are critical and might die in the night."

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the bomber detonated his explosive device inside Imam Zaman, a Shi'ite mosque in Dasht-e-Barchi, a western part of Kabul.

In the meantime, a suicide bomber targeted another mosque in Ghor.

Ghor police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal Nizami said the number of dead from that suicide bombing has now risen to 33.

Muwen Ahmad, a provincial council member from Ghor, confirmed the suicide bombing, saying others are still buried in rubble.

The target was militia commander Fazl Ahad, who was praying inside the mosque, Ahmad said.

Afghanistan's Shi'ite minority is increasingly the target of attacks by the country's branch of the Islamic State group.

The extremist group regards Shi'ites as heretics.

The Kabul attack is the third on a Shi'ite mosque in the capital city within two months. Most have been claimed by the country's Islamic State branch.


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Source: AAP


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Kabul mosque attacks leave 72 people dead | SBS News