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At least three people were killed and dozens of others were wounded when an explosion ripped through a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul during evening prayers on Wednesday, according to an NGO that operates a hospital there.
“Following today’s explosion, we admitted 27 patients to our Surgical Centre for War Victims in Kabul, including five minors, one of them a 7-year-old boy,” Stefano Sozza, the Afghanistan director for the Italian NGO Emergency, said in a statement. “Two patients arrived dead, one died in the Emergency Room.”
A general view of the city of Kabul, Afghanistan August 5, 2022.
(Reuters/Ali Khara)
The death toll could be much higher. A security official told Al Jazeera that 20 people were killed by the explosion.
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A spokesperson for the Taliban’s government, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted that the explosion happened in the Khair Khana neighborhood which is located in northwestern Kabul.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but ISIS has stepped up attacks against the Taliban over the past year.
Taliban fighters hold their weapons as they celebrate one year since they seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, Aug. 15.
(AP/Ebrahim Noroozi)
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Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, warned earlier this year that more attacks by ISIS could be expected in the summer.
“We’re coming out of the winter; traditionally this would now begin the fighting season,” McKenzie told the Senate in March. “It is my expectation that ISIS attacks will ramp up in Afghanistan as we go into the summer.”
Reuters contributed to this report.