At least 16 dead as blasts rock Afghan cities

At least 16 humans were killed with the aid of bomb blasts in two Afghan towns Thursday. counting in  12 at a Shiite mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif claimed  Islamic State (IS) group.

The wide variety of bombings in Afghanistan has faded for the reason that the Taliban again to strength in August, but the jihadist and Sunni IS organization has claimed numerous due to the fact then often towards Shiite objectives.

Grisly images of victims being carried to medical institutions from Seh Dokan mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif have been posted on social media.

“Blood and fear are everywhere,” Ahmad Zia Zindani, spokesman for the Balkh provincial public health department, told AFP, adding “people were screaming” while seeking news of their relatives at the hospital.

He said 12 people were killed in the blast and 58 wounded — including 32 in serious condition.

“Relatives of victims were arriving at city hospitals looking for their near and dear ones. Many residents were also coming to donate blood,” Zindani said.

In Kunduz, at least four people were killed and 18 wounded by a blast police spokesman Obaidullah Abedi told AFP was caused by a bicycle bomb targeting a vehicle carrying mechanics working for the Taliban.

Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazara community, which makes up between 10 and 20 per cent of the country’s 38 million people, has long been the target of the IS, who consider them heretics.

“The soldiers of the caliphate managed to get a booby-trapped bag” inside the mosque, detonating it from afar after it was packed with worshippers, IS said in a statement.

On Tuesday, two blasts outside a school in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul killed at least six people and wounded 25 others.

No group claimed responsibility for that attack.

Taliban officials insist their forces have defeated IS, but analysts say the jihadist group is a key security challenge.

Since seizing power, the Taliban have regularly raided suspected IS hideouts in the eastern Nangarhar province.

In May last year at least 85 people mainly girl students were killed and about 300 wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in the Shiite dominated Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul.

No group claimed obligation for that, but in October 2020 IS admitted a suicide attack on an educational centre inside the equal area that killed 24 people, along with college students.

In May 2020, the organization became blamed for a bloody assault on a maternity ward of a medical institution in the identical neighbourhood that killed 25 people, which includes new moms.