Suicide Bomber kills 50 worshippers during friday prayers at Kabul Mosque, several injured
The official death toll is ten, but the mosque’s leader confirmed it had risen to 50 by late afternoon.
A suicide bomb blast killed at least 50 worshippers during Friday prayers at a mosque in Afghanistan. Hundreds were gathered inside the Khalifa Sahib Mosque in western Kabul when the huge explosion took place.
The official death toll is ten, but the mosque's leader confirmed it had risen to 50 by late afternoon.
The attack came as worshippers at the Sunni mosque gathered after Friday prayers for a congregation known as Zikr, an act of religious remembrance practised by some Muslims but seen as heretical by some hardline Sunni groups.
Sayed Fazil Agha, the head of the mosque, said someone they believed was a suicide bomber joined them in the ceremony and detonated explosives.
Emergency Hospital in downtown Kabul said it was treating 21 patients wounded in the blast and two patients were dead on arrival.
A nurse at another hospital, who declined to be identified, said it had received several wounded in critical condition.
A health source said hospitals had so far received at least 30 bodies in total.
Scores of Afghan civilians have been killed in recent weeks in blasts, some of which have been claimed by Islamic State.
The latest attack came on the last Friday in the month of Ramadan in which most Muslims fast, and before the religious holiday of Eid next week.
