More than two dozen people have been killed in a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in the Afghan city of Heart, Deutshe Welle reports.
The police said late on Tuesday that 29 people had been killed and 64 wounded in the western city of Herat. Both attackers are dead, a police spokesperson told the French news agency AFP.
The assault took place at around 8:00 pm (1530 UTC) at the Jawadya mosque in Herat, which is close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran.
“The death toll has risen to 29 killed and 63 wounded. Some wounded are in a critical condition so the toll may go up,” hospital spokesman Rafeeq Shirzai told AFP.
Witnesses said one of the men detonated explosives and at least one other, a gunman, threw grenades at worshippers. IRIB, the state broadcaster in neighboring Iran, said seven gunmen had been involved.
“The mosque was full of people when the incident happened,” Abdul Ahad Walizada, spokesman for Herat police, told the German news agency DPA.
There has been no claim of responsibility so far, with the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeting: “Bomb blast in Jawadiyah mosque in Herat has nothing to do with the Mujahidin.” The Taliban controls about 11 per cent of the country.
