Blast near Kabul mosque after Friday prayers kills at least seven people
At least seven people were killed and more than 40 injured on Friday by a blast near a mosque in the Afghan capital which struck as worshippers were streaming out of afternoon prayers, police said.
The explosion was the latest in a deadly series targeting Friday prayers at mosques in recent months, some of them claimed by the militant group Islamic State.
"After prayers, when people wanted to come out from the mosque, a blast happened," said Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran. "All casualties are civilians."
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He later confirmed the death toll was seven, including children, and said 41 people had been injured.
Italian-NGO run Emergency Hospital said it had received 14 people hurt by the explosion, of whom four were dead on arrival.
"Feeling appalled by today's Kabul blast and learning about ... (casualties) this detonation has caused," Raffaella Iodice, the deputy head of the European Union's Delegation to Afghanistan said in a tweet.
The explosion took place in Wazir Akbar Khan, an area formerly home to the city's "green zone" - the location of many foreign embassies and NATO - but now controlled by the ruling Taliban.
The mosque has been targeted in the past, including a blast in June 2020 - before the Taliban returned to power - that killed its imam and wounded several people.
