Terrorists Hit Herat Mosque, Kill 50

Terrorists mounted two deadly attacks in Afghanistan, killing scores of people as the war-torn country sees a jump in the suicide attacks.

A suicide attack at a packed Shia mosque in the western Afghan province of Herat killed dozens of people and injured scores, officials and eyewitnesses said, Al Jazeera reported.

The exact death toll from Tuesday’s blast was unclear.

At Herat main hospital, Dr Shehrzai confirmed that 29 bodies were brought to the medical facility soon after the blast.

Officials feared a rising toll with several of the more than 60 people injured in a critical condition.

Earlier, the provincial governor’s spokesman, Jalani Farhad, told Al Jazeera that the death toll had risen to 50.

“At around 8:00pm (15:30 GMT) tonight, a terrorist attack was carried out on a mosque in the third security district of Herat city,” Herat police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada told AFP news agency.

“Based on our initial information two terrorists were involved, one of them wearing a suicide vest, who detonated himself, while the second one was armed with a rifle. They are both dead,” he added.

The attack took place in the middle of evening prayers when the mosque was packed with about 300 worshippers.

Shia Muslims are a persecuted minority in Afghanistan and have been threatened by the affiliate of the self-styled Islamic State terror group that operates in the country’s east.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi denied responsibility for the deadly attack.

Afghanistan’s national unity government said it strongly condemned the Herat attack, describing it in a statement as an “anti-Islam act”.

It also called “on the Muslim people of Afghanistan, as well as on the religious scholars, to stand united against the barbaric actions of the terrorists”.

President Ashraf Ghani said that “terrorists cannot create sectarian divisions among our people”.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of international troops near the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, a security official said, and the NATO-led military coalition confirmed there were casualties.

“We are working to gather additional information as quickly as possible and will release more details as appropriate,” the coalition said in a statement.

A local security official said the attacker drove an explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy. No further details were immediately available.

A Reuters witness at the scene said military helicopters landed at the site at least four times.

The airport in Kandahar is home to a major military base for international troops helping Afghan security forces.

The coalition maintains nearly 13,000 troops from 39 countries as part of a mission to train, advise and assist Afghan troops, who are struggling to contain a resurgent Taliban insurgency.