Suicide attackers stormed a crowded mosque in Kabul during Friday Prayer, officials said, killing at least 36 people and wounding dozens of others in the latest in a series of deadly attacks against Shiites in Afghanistan. The Islamic State, which previously claimed deadly assaults against Shiite targets in the country, said its militants were behind the attack, according to the group’s Amaq news agency.
Worshipers who had jumped out of windows and fled barefoot from the siege described scenes of panic and bloodshed after gunmen entered the compound in a residential area in the north of the city. The men stormed in after an explosion, believed to have been caused by grenades thrown at security guards at the entrance. Eidi Muhammad Akbari, who fled to safety, said that hundreds of people had been stuck inside.
“Half of the mosque was full of worshipers — women upstairs and men downstairs, hundreds of men and women,” he said, pacing barefoot. “They threw a grenade inside and then entered.” Multiple heavy explosions were heard. As plumes of thick smoke rose above the mosque, witnesses said, the Afghan forces tore down a rear wall to rescue dozens of worshipers trapped insid
“I personally helped evacuate 20 dead bodies, many of them women,” said Sayed Hussain, who managed to get inside the mosque to look for his friends. “They had killed people wherever they found them.” Nearly four hours after it began, elite Afghan forces declared the siege was over. “We are still transferring casualties to hospitals,” said Mohammed Ismail Kawoosi, a spokesman for the Afghan Health Ministry. He said that in addition to those killed, at least 40 others were wounded.
Najib Danish, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said three attackers were involved in the siege, which killed at least 10 civilians and three police officers. At least 30 civilians and police officers were wounded. “The police evacuated 107 people trapped in the mosque,” Mr. Danish said. But survivors said the death toll might be much higher.
Mohammed Jawad Qurbani, who was trapped in the mosque for three hours before he was rescued by the police, said dozens of men and women tried to hide at the home of the mosque’s imam in the corner of the compound. “The attackers quickly went upstairs, where women were praying,” Mr. Qurbani said.
Gunfire and explosions were heard as special forces, using drone cameras and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs, scrambled to find a way into the compound.