In a message circulated by IS spokesman Amak on Saturday night, it was said that two IS fighters had killed the guards at the mosque before they detonated their explosive vests in the midst of the believers.
The state news agency Bakhtar had spoken of 32 dead on Friday. A provincial representative of the ruling militant Islamist Taliban said on Saturday that the number of deaths had risen to 47 and 70 people were wounded.
As recently as last Friday (October 8th), more than 40 people were killed and more than 140 injured in a suicide attack on a mosque belonging to the Shiite minority in the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. The IS also claimed this attack for itself.
The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in mid-August and proclaimed a government of their own. IS has been active in the country since around 2015 and is a mortal enemy of the Taliban, although both groups are recruited from Sunnis and are ideologically close. IS regards Shiite Muslims as heretics. He had already attacked Shiites and their facilities in Afghanistan in the past. He also claimed the devastating attack at Kabul airport at the end of August while the international military evacuation mission was still ongoing. At that time, according to media reports, almost 200 people died.