Alwaght- At least one civilian was killed and eight more injured after two terrorists attacked a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan on Sunday, in the latest assault against the Muslim minority.
ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed another blast that was claimed by the group in Kabul last week and killed about 30 people near a Shiite shrine as the city celebrated Nawruz, the Persian new year.
The suicide bombers stormed the grounds of the mosque in the western city of Herat, but security guards shot dead one of them and the other blew himself up before reaching the hall where worshippers were praying, provincial governor spokesman Jilani Farhad told AFP.
Reuters cited Deputy police chief Aminullah Amin as saying that “Our Shiite brothers were praying in the mosque when two suicide bombers entered the mosque compound. Fortunately, the bombers were identified by Afghan police and local residents”.
The area around the mosque was cordoned off by police and ambulances were seen rushing victims to hospitals in the city, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
While sectarian violence in mainly Sunni Muslim Afghanistan was previously rare, a series of attacks over recent years, many claimed by Islamic State, have killed hundreds of Shiites, many from the Hazara ethnic minority.
ISIS made the claim via a statement released online by its Amaq news agency.
