BY: News Peddlers
A bomb exploded outside a mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, killing at least seven people and injuring 41 others, including two children.
According to Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran, worshippers were leaving the main mosque in the upscale Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood after Friday afternoon prayers when the blast occurred.
"Everyone who died was a civilian," Zadran added.
Emergency, a nearby Italian charity hospital, tweeted that it had "received 14 casualties — four of whom were already dead upon arrival."
According to Zadran, the bomb was planted in a vehicle parked in front of the mosque, and an investigation is underway to apprehend the perpetrators.
Militants have previously targeted the mosque. Two people were killed in a blast in 2020, when the Taliban were waging a deadly insurgency against the then-internationally supported Afghan government forces and US-led foreign troops.
The bombing on Friday was the latest in a string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan on places of worship and prominent clerics associated with the ruling Islamist Taliban. Some of the attacks have been claimed by the Afghan affiliate of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province.
When government security forces collapsed in the face of stunning insurgent attacks in August 2021, the Taliban seized power, and the US, along with NATO allies, withdrew all troops from the country after two decades of war.
The US called Friday's bombing in Kabul a "vicious attack" on worshippers.
"Such an assault on people who profess their faith is unjustifiable. We extend our condolences to the victims' families and hope that those injured recover quickly "The US Embassy tweeted about it.
Shortly before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Washington and Western countries relocated their diplomatic missions from Kabul to Qatar.
(VOA)