At least 11 people were killed and 30 injured on Thursday in an attack on a mosque in northern Afghanistan where the funeral of a governor was taking place, whose assassination on Tuesday was claimed by the group State Islamic.
"Today around 11 a.m., the enemies of Islam blew up the Nabawi Mosque in the city of Faizabad (...), while a large number of compatriots were participating in the ceremony in honor of Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi ", governor of the province of Badakhshan, detailed the Afghan Ministry of Interior.
The ministry condemned "the brutality" of "dishonored enemies".
"I was standing outside the mosque to welcome the guests when suddenly a terrible noise shook the mosque," Naseer Ahmad told AFP.
"When I entered the mosque, I saw bloody corpses lying on the ground," the 37-year-old added.
An AFP reporter close to the site of the explosion noted that Taliban government security forces had set up checkpoints around the funeral site on Thursday morning.
When the blast sounded, "people fled into nearby streets and shops were closed in a panic" as security forces cordoned off the area, he added. He was able to see ten bodies on stretchers at a local hospital.
"The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (Manua) unequivocally condemns this attack and a recent series of appalling and indiscriminate attacks that demonstrate a complete disregard for the lives of civilians," Manua tweeted.
Security has improved dramatically since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and ousted the US-backed government, ending two decades of insurgency. The Islamic State (IS) group, however, remains the biggest security threat to the government.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the assassination on Tuesday of Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, governor of Badakhshan province. The man had been killed by a suicide bomber who rammed his vehicle with a car loaded with explosives.
The driver was also killed and six other people injured.
Since the return to power of the Taliban, IS has killed and injured hundreds of people in several attacks, some of which have targeted foreigners or foreign interests with the aim of undermining the Taliban government.
The IS and the Taliban share an austere Sunni Islamist ideology, but the former fights for the establishment of a global "caliphate", while the latter wishes to lead an independent Afghanistan.
On March 9, the governor of Balkh province (north), known for his fight against IS jihadists, was killed in his office in Mazar-i-Sharif in a suicide attack claimed by the group.
08/06/2023 15:40:14 - Faizabad (Afghanistan) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
