Taliban said a blast near the major mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, killed at least two people and wounded many more.
Bombing Outside Kabul's Mahor Mosque
According to the Taliban, an explosion outside Kabul's major mosque killed at least two Afghan civilians and injured others on Sunday, the latest in a series of bombings aimed at undermining the insurgents' capacity to provide security to the capital and other towns.
In a recently published article in MSN News, the blast at the Eid Gah Mosque was the city's first significant assault since the Islamic State attacked Kabul's international airport in late August, killing hundreds of people trying to flee the country. There has been no formal claim of responsibility as of Sunday night.
Two individuals were killed in the explosion, according to Qari Muhammad Saeed Khosti, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, but he warned that the number might increase. Khosti stated, "I don't have a precise number of victims. We've started our investigation."
Furthermore, the blast happened outside the mosque's gate, on a highway between Kabul and Logar province, as Taliban militants and others gathered for a monument to commemorate the mother of Zabihullah Mujahid, the acting deputy information minister and a senior spokesperson.
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Taliban Spokesman Denied Reports of Heavy Casualties
The Taliban's deputy spokesperson, Bilal Karimi, rejected claims of significant fatalities. There were no Taliban militants among the dead, he added. Three individuals were apprehended by Taliban security forces, and investigations were ongoing. "Usually, such assaults are carried out by Daesh terrorists, but it is too early to tell who was behind the bombing," Karimi added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, according to a published report in The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, four people were injured in the explosion on Sunday, according to a tweet from a hospital in Kabul. According to social media reports, the explosion killed up to 12 individuals and wounded more than 30 others, but the Taliban spokesman denied that there were no heavy casualties among the group.
Separately, Twitter briefly banned Mujahid and Karimi's accounts on Sunday without giving a reason. Mujahid has a little over 400,000 followers on Twitter. Karimi has around 66,000 followers on Twitter.
Feud Between Taliban and ISIS-K
In many parts of the nation, the Taliban are fighting the Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the Afghan offshoot of the network headquartered in Syria and Iraq. The late-August airport assault, which included two suicide bombs, killed 13 US service personnel and about 170 Afghan civilians during the tumultuous conclusion of the US military departure from Afghanistan after two decades, according to a report published in BBC News,
ISIS-K, which opposes the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings in eastern Afghanistan in recent weeks. The explosions mainly occurred in and around Jalalabad, the capital of Nangahar's eastern province and a recognized ISIS-K stronghold. While both are Islamist organizations, ISIS-K accuses the Taliban of being too moderate.
On the other hand, the Taliban is also said to be split among its ranks about who should get the greatest credit for defeating the US and how authority should be distributed. It has publicly refuted rumors of opposing groups battling.
