Blast hits Kabul mosque in vicinity of interior ministry

KABUL (Agencies): A blast hit a mosque in Afghanistan’s capital in the vicinity of the heavily fortified interior ministry compound on Wednesday, the ministry’s spokesman said.

“The mosque was used by visitors and sometimes by interior ministry employees,” Abdul Nafi Takor said.

Officials did not immediately give any casualty numbers, or comment on the nature of the blast.

The interior ministry compound is in a secure area next to Kabul international airport.

The blast comes after a suicide bombing on Friday killed 53 people in a Kabul classroom, including 46 girls and women, according to a UN death toll.

Witnesses said the attacker blew himself up in the women’s section of a gender-segregated classroom of a study hall in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood — an enclave of the historically oppressed Shiite Hazara community.

Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have emphasised that they are securing the nation following decades of war, but recent months have seen a series of blasts at mosques and civilian areas.