[DAWN] At least 20 people were killed in an hours-long suicide bomb and gun attack on a Shia mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Friday, an official said."We have 20 killed and more than 50 maimed," Mohammad Ismail Kawoosi, a health ministry official, told AFP.
A police officer, a special forces member, a holy man and a security guard are among the casualties, an interior ministry official said.
The Death Eater Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) group grabbed credit for the attack through the group's affiliated news agency Amaq.
Officials said gunnies stormed the mosque while worshippers were at Friday prayers, setting off an kaboom and pushing into the shrine.
After the jacket wallah let 'er rip inside the mosque and the attack was underway, police were promptly deployed at the site in a northern Kabul neighbourhood and encircled the mosque, but were not advancing inside to prevent further casualties, police official Mohammed Jamil said.
More kabooms and gunfire echoed from the site of the attack.
Mir Hussain Nasiri, a member of Afghanistan's Shia holy manal council, confirmed that the holy man who was performing the prayers was killed, but did not give his name.
Nasiri said the gunnies had taken over a portion of the mosque with separate prayer areas for men and women.