At least four people were killed in an explosion near a Kabul mosque regularly attended by senior Taliban leaders, a few minutes after the end of prayers on Friday September 23, we learned from a hospital source.
The explosion occurred near the entrance to the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, not far from the former green zone, an ultra-secure district that housed diplomatic representations and major international institutions before the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. The Italian NGO Emergency, which runs a hospital in the capital, tweeted that it had received “14 victimsof the explosion. “Four were already dead when they arrived“, she added.
Targeted religious minorities
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran confirmed that the explosion caused “victims“, but without giving more details. Footage posted to social media shows a wrecked and burning car on a road bordering the mosque. This mosque had been the target of an attack in 2020, in which its imam, a renowned cleric, had been killed.
The number of attacks has decreased in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over a year ago, but they have not stopped. Several mosques or religious dignitaries have been targeted in recent months. Most of the attacks were claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which mainly targets Afghan religious minorities Shiites, Sufis and Sikhs, but also the Taliban.
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Taliban officials regularly assert that they have security in the country under control, and they often deny or minimize incidents reported on social networks. Specialists, however, consider that IS, another Sunni group but with which they maintain deep enmity and ideological differences, remains the main threat to their regime.
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