Kabul: A powerful explosion in a Shiite Muslim mosque in northern Afghanistan on Thursday killed at least 10 worshippers and injured another 40, according to a hospital official.
Ghawsuddin Anwari, head of the main hospital in northern Mazar-e-Sharif, where the explosion occurred, said the dead and wounded were brought in ambulances and private cars.
The explosion at the Sai Doken mosque in northern Mazar-e-Sharif occurred as scores of worshippers knelt in prayer as Muslims mark the holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful fast from sunrise to sunset.
Earlier on Thursday, in the capital, Kabul, a roadside bomb exploded and injured two children. That bomb also targeted the country’s minority Shiites.
While no one took responsibility for either attack, the bombings had all the hallmarks of a deadly Islamic State affiliate known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or IS-K.
Kabul police spokesman, Khalid Zadran, said in a tweet that the explosive went off in the median strip of a road in a western area of Kabul in a mostly Shiite neighbourhood.
Two days earlier in the same area, multiple explosions targeting educational institutions killed at least six people, mostly children, and wounded 17 others.

KR Desk