At least 50 people have been killed and 80 more injured in a suicide bomb attack on a gathering to mark the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday in Afghanistan.
The explosion ripped through a meeting of top clerics at a wedding hall in Kabul today in one of the deadliest attacks to strike the Afghan capital in months.
No one immediately claimed the attack, but both the Taliban and a local ISIS affiliate have targeted religious scholars aligned with the government in the past.
Hardline Sunni Muslims do not observe ‘mawlid’ – the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday – at all, considering it a more modern addition to Islam. When ISIS seized the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, it banned celebrating the prophet’s birth.
At least 50 people have been killed and 80 more injured in a suicide bomb attack on a gathering to mark the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday in Afghanistan. A victim is pictured arriving at hospital after the blast
No one immediately claimed the attack, but both the Taliban and a local ISIS affiliate have targeted religious scholars aligned with the government in the past
This was the horrific scene in the aftermath of the suicide bomb attack at the Kabul wedding hall today
Today’s blast targeted an Ulema Council gathering as millions of Muslims around the world marked mawlid.
It follows a wave of violence across war-torn Afghanistan in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people as militants step up attacks.
A manager of Uranus Wedding Palace, which also hosts political and religious functions, told AFP a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of the gathering.
‘There are a lot of casualties – I myself have counted 30 casualties,’ he told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
ISIS claimed a suicide bombing in June that targeted a meeting of the country’s top clerics in the capital.
That attack killed at least seven people and wounded 20.
Security forces inspect the site of a suicide attack, inside a wedding hall in Kabul, Afghanistan
The explosion ripped through a meeting of top clerics in Kabul today in one of the deadliest attacks to strike the Afghan capital in months
Afghan men carry a bomb blast victim to a hospital after the suicide attack in Kabul
The body of religious leaders targeted in June, known as the Afghan Ulema Council, had issued a decree against suicide attacks and called for peace talks.
ISIS said it had targeted ‘tyrant clerics’ who were siding with the US-backed government.
The Taliban denied involvement in the June attack but they also denounced the gathering.
Both militant groups want to overthrow the US-backed government and impose a harsh form of Islamic rule, but they are bitterly divided over leadership and ideology, and they have clashed on a number of occasions.
The latest attack comes as the Taliban intensifies pressure on Afghan security forces, even as the international community ramps up efforts to convince the group to engage in peace talks.
US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad expressed hopes in Kabul on Sunday that a peace deal to end the 17-year war could be struck before the Afghan presidential election, scheduled for April.
His comments underscore an apparent increasing sense of urgency in the White House and among American diplomats for a peace deal to be done quickly.