Casualties in suicide attack on Afghan Shiite mosque

HERAT, Afghanistan: Two suicide attackers struck a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least one person and wounding eight others, officials said, in the latest assault against the Muslim minority.

The men stormed the grounds of the mosque in the western city of Herat, but security guards shot dead one of them and the other blew himself up before reaching the hall where worshippers were praying, provincial governor spokesman Jilani Farhad told AFP.

At least one worshipper was killed and eight others were wounded in the attack on Nabi Akram mosque, Farhad said, adding all the victims were civilians. The casualty toll was confirmed by deputy police chief Aminullah Amin.

The area around the mosque was cordoned off by police and ambulances were seen rushing victims to hospitals in the city, an AFP photographer at the scene said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack near a Shi’ite mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat but provided no evidence for its claim. The group made the claim via a statement released online by its Amaq news agency.

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the mosque, killing at least one person and wounding seven others, Afghan police said. IS’s local franchise in Afghanistan claimed an attack in Kabul last Wednesday that killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens more, many of them teenagers.

A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of people celebrating Nawrooz, the Persian new year holiday, in a heavily Shiite neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Russia rejected comments by NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan that it has been supporting and even supplying weapons to the Taliban, in a clash of words that underlines growing tension over Moscow’s involvement in the conflict.