Emergency, a non-governmental organization offering free medical and surgical care to Afghans, tweeted that 20 injured people had been taken to hospital after the blast. At least two UN staff members and their families were inside the Khalifa Sahib mosque at the time of the attack, the deputy secretary-general said on Friday. Farhan Haq said he condemned the attack in the most “strong terms”, calling it “the latest in a series of indiscriminate attacks on political targets”. In a statement posted on Twitter on Friday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said he condemned the attack, which took place days before the end of Ramadan. “We strongly condemn today’s bombing of a mosque in the 6th District of Kabul. Such brutal killings during this fast are the work of circles that have nothing to do with Islam or the country,” Mujahid wrote on Twitter on Friday. “The Islamic Emirate expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims. The perpetrators of these crimes will soon be found and punished, God willing,” he added.
Weeks of deadly attacks
A series of deadly explosions, mainly targeting the Hazara Shiites community, has shaken several cities in Afghanistan in the last two weeks. Last week, 33 people were killed and dozens injured in a mosque blast in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province during Friday prayers, a Taliban spokesman said. The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a rally in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and another in Kunduz, killing at least two people earlier in the week. ISIS’s subsidiary and Taliban rival ISIS-Khorsan (ISIS-K) has claimed responsibility for most of the recent attacks. Friday’s blast has not yet been undertaken by any group. CNNA’s Mostafa Salem, Nicola Careem and Hannah Ritchie contributed to this report.
