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Rabat – The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings that targeted a Shia mosque in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan on Friday.
The attacks killed 47 people and left more injured, marking the second week in a row of attacks at Shia mosques during the Friday prayers.
The Islamic State also claimed responsibility for last week’s attack.
Four suicide bombers attacked the mosque, according to its imam Sardar Mohammad Zaidi, with two detonating their explosives at the entrance, while the other two blew themselves up among the 3,000 worshippers towards the end of the prayers.
According to Amaq News Agency, the group’s official news platform, two of the fighters also shot the mosque guards dead before making their way into the mosque and carrying out the attack.
The attacks add to the growing anxieties that Afghanistan’s Shia minority have been facing, and undermine the Taliban’s claim to be enforcing security in the country.
Zabihullah Mijahid, an official spokesman for the Taliban, said that security forces have been instructed to detain the perpetrators and have them face justice under Islamic law.
The Islamic State’s Sunni fighters have been known to repeatedly target Shia Muslims in the past with large scale attacks, such as an attack in May of last year that targeted schoolgirls in a Shia district in Kabul.
About 10% of Afghanistan’s population are Shia, with most of them belonging to the Hazara ethnic group, which has faced persecution in the country for several decades.
The Islamic State in Khorasan Province, more commonly known as ISIS-K, is an offshoot group of the Islamic State armed group and has emerged as a prominent threat in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover of the country in August.
The group is opposed to the Taliban, as both adhere to and want to enforce different sets of strict Sunni beliefs.
