Kabul mosque blast kills dozens

• A massive explosion has ripped through a crowded mosque in Kabul, killing 21 people.
• The imam of the mosque is said to be among the dead.
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• It is unknown who carried out the attack, which occurred a week after IS militants killed a pro-Taliban cleric in Kabul.

A massive explosion ripped through a crowded mosque in Kabul, killing 21 people, According to police.

Another 33 people were injured, according to Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran.

The explosion happened during evening prayers on Wednesday. The imam of the mosque is said to be among the dead.

It is unknown who carried out the attack, which occurred a week after Islamic State (IS) militants killed a pro-Taliban cleric in a suicide bombing in Kabul.

The blast site in Kabul has now been secured by security forces.

Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion that shattered windows in nearby buildings.

“I saw that so many people were killed, even people were thrown out of the windows of the mosque,” one eyewitness told Reuters news agency.

The head of the medical charity Emergency, which runs the city’s main hospital, Stefano Sozza, told the media that his organization had already treated 35 people, including children.

“Our doctors… operated [on] the patients in need of surgical assistance all night long. The injuries were mainly related to the blast so there were shells inside the bodies and burning injuries all over the bodies of the victims”.

He stated that he believed the explosion occurred inside the mosque. “There was probably someone entering during the prayer time, so it was crowded at the time, and then [the attacker] detonated this body-burning improvised explosive device.”

“So that all the persons that were close to the attacker were basically dead and the ones all around received several injuries,” Mr Sozza added.

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