Afghanistan: At least 32 dead, dozens injured in Shiite mosque blast in Kandahar

Afghanistan-based Tolo News reported quoting eye-witnesses that three back-to-back blasts had hit Imam Bargah mosque located in Kandahar city’s police district one (PD1) when it was packed with worshippers attending weekly Friday prayers.

According to a report by the Associated Press (AP) citing an eye-witness, four suicide bombers attacked the mosque, and two of them detonated their payloads at a security gate, allowing the other two to run inside and blow up explosives in the congregation of worshippers, majorly from the Shia community.

Locals said Friday prayers at the Shiite mosque are typically attended by around 500 people, though it is still not clear how many worshippers were their during the suicide attack.

Kandahar city's health officials said injured people have been shifted to different health facilities and many of them are critical.

The spokesman for the Taliban-run Ministry of Interior, Qari Saeed Khosty, also confirmed the attack which has claimed 'a number of lives' at the mosque.

"We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite Brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded," Qari Saeed Khosty tweeted.

"Special forces of the Islamic Emirate have arrived in the area to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice," he added.

Local media said no group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast.

Today's suicide attack in Kandahar's Imam Bargah mosque occurred just a week after a bombing by local Islamic State affiliate at a Shiite mosque in northern Afghanistan's Kunduz killed 46 people and wounded more than 90 others last Friday.