ISLAMABAD (AP) — An explosion tore through a mosque Friday in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province, killing at least one worshiper and injuring seven others, a Taliban official said.
Dozens of people had gathered at the mosque in Imam Sahib district for Friday prayers when an explosive device placed there went off, said Obaidullah Abedi, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the police chief of Kunduz.
Responsibility for the attack was not claimed and an investigation was launched. Of late, the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province has ramped up attacks on mosques and minorities across the country.
The IS affiliate, which has been active in Afghanistan since 2014, is seen as the biggest security challenge for the country’s new Taliban rulers. After taking power when they took power in Kabul and elsewhere in the country last August, the Taliban have launched a sweeping crackdown on IS headquarters in eastern Afghanistan.
Last month, a similar attack on a mosque in the capital of Kabul killed at least five people and injured 22. In April, a powerful explosion ripped through the Khalifa Aga Gul Jan mosque – also in Kabul – during Friday prayers, killing at least 10. people and injured as many as 30 others.
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