Mosque bomb blast in northern Afghan city of Kunduz kills 33

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet that the blast ripped through the mosque in the Imam Sahib district of Kunduz during Friday prayers.

“We condemn this crime… and express our deepest sympathies to the bereaved,” he said.

“The perpetrators of these incidents are…evil elements and serious efforts are being made to arrest and punish them,” he added.

Head of the provincial department of information and culture said there were casualties but did not provide details. 

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack yet, which followed multiple blasts claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the country.

A bombing at a mosque in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday killed at least 31 worshipers and injured more than 80, in the second major attack on the Shia Hazara community in Afghanistan in a week.

Afghan media reports quoting health officials said that 31 dead bodies and 80 wounded had so far been brought to the main Abu Ali Sina hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Daesh terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Tuesday, two blasts outside a school in a Hazara community neighborhood of Kabul killed at least 20 people and wounded more than two dozen others.

The Hazara community, the poorest of the country’s ethnic groups, accounts for about 22 percent of Afghanistan’s population. Its members have been targeted in several large-scale kidnappings and killings across Afghanistan in the past.

Foreign terrorists seek to wage civil war in Afghanistan: Iran

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Friday condemned the “terrorist” blast that hit the mosque in Kunduz.

Khatibzadeh pointed to the series of terrorist attacks in recent days in Afghanistan and expressed his deep concern over the escalation of violence and acts of terror in the country.

The Iranian spokesperson added that the attack on the Kunduz mosque “clearly shows the vicious intentions of foreign mercenary terrorists who seek to wage civil war in Afghanistan.”

Security in Afghanistan has vastly improved since the Taliban’s takeover of the country. However, several attacks are reported each week throughout the country, including some claimed by Daesh.

The Taliban, who had previously ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, took power again on August 15 as the US was in the middle of a chaotic troop withdrawal. The group announced the formation of a caretaker government on September 7. No country has yet recognized their rule.