At least sixty people have been killed after a terrifying explosion rocked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan as dozens of people gathered to offer Friday players, causing the roof to collapse, officials said.
According to Attahullah Khogyani, the spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar, the militant attack wounded 36 others. It was also not instantly clear whether it was attacked by a suicide bomber or some other type of bombing. Both men and children are among thise killd and injured,he added.
Up to now, no terrorist outfit or individual have immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) group are very active in eastern Afghanistan, particularly in Nangarhar province.
The spokesman for the public health department in Nangarhar Province Zahir Adil said 23 of the wounded were transferred to Jalalabad, the provincial capital, and others were being treated in the Haskamena district clinic.
The violence comes at a time after a United Nations report said that civilians in Afghanistan are dying in record numbers in the country’s increasingly brutal war, noting that more civilians died in July than in any previous one-month period since the UN began keeping statistics.
The report said that pro-government forces caused 2,348 civilian casualties, including 1,149 killed and 1,199 wounded, a 26 per cent increase from the same period in 2018.
The UN report also said in the first nine months of this year 2,563 civilians were killed and 5,676 were wounded. Insurgents were responsible for 62 percent of this figure. July to September were said to be the deadliest months until now this year.
