72 killed as suicide bombers attack two Afghan mosques

KABUL: Suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 72 people, including children, officials and witnesses said.

One bomber walked into a Shia mosque in Kabul as people were praying on Friday night and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers there, Mahmood Shah Husaini, said. At least 39 people died in the blast at the Imam Zaman mosque in the city’s western Dasht-e-Barchi district, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

No group claimed the responsibility. 

"Unfortunately this evening a suicide bomber detonated himself among the worshippers inside a mosque in Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul city," Kabul police spokesman Abdul Basir Mujahid told AFP.

"I was in the mosque bathroom when I heard a blast. I rushed inside the mosque and saw all the worshippers covered in blood," Hussain Ali told AFP. "Some of the wounded were fleeing. I tried to stop someone to help the wounded but everyone was in a panic. It took ambulances and the police about an hour to reach the area."

Social media users launched an online campaign calling on people to donate blood for the wounded being treated at two hospitals. Police initially said a gunman entered the Imam Zaman mosque in the west of the city and opened fire on worshippers.

Separately, a suicide bombing killed at least 33 people at a mosque in central Ghor province, a police spokesman said. The attack appeared to target a local leader from the Jamiat political party, according to a statement from Balkh provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, a leading figure in Jamiat. Again, no one immediately claimed the responsibility.

The attacks cap one of the bloodiest weeks in Afghanistan in recent memory, with more than 120 people already killed and hundreds more wounded in four separate Taliban attacks on police and military bases. Including Friday´s victims at the two mosque attacks, the death toll for the week now stands at more than 180.

In three of the Taliban attacks the assailants used bomb-laden Humvees stolen from Afghan government forces to blast their way into targets, as militants step up direct attacks on security installations.