Taliban says that at least 15 people were injured in an Afghanistan mosque attack

Key sentence:

• The bombing on Friday targeted Sunni Muslims in a region that has been at the forefront of the conflict between the Islamic State and the Taliban.
• The Taliban are focused on gaining control of Afghanistan, whereas IS is committed to global jihad.

According to a Taliban provincial spokesman, a bomb burst in a mosque during Friday prayers in eastern Afghanistan, wounding at least 15 people. Islamic State militants have already been waging a violent campaign there.

The explosive appears to have been planted inside the mosque in Traili, which is located in the mountainous Spin Ghar area west of the provincial capital Jalalabad, according to Qari Hanif, the government spokesman for Nangarhar Province.

Three victims were discovered in the mosque’s interior, littered with rubble and broken glass, according to photos distributed on social media by a local. Hanif did not confirm any deaths right away.

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It was Afghanistan’s third big mosque explosion in five weeks. IS suicide bombers and gunmen blasted worshipers from Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim minority on consecutive Fridays last month, first in a mosque in the city of Kunduz and later in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar.

The bombing on Friday targeted Sunni Muslims in a region that has been at the forefront of the conflict between the Islamic State and the Taliban. In Nangarhar Province, IS terrorists have been engaging out virtually daily gunfire and explosions against Taliban fighters.

The Taliban have waged a counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan since taking control three months ago, aiming to eliminate the threat posed by IS.

The Taliban considers IS to be an adversary. Both groups have a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and have used similarly brutal tactics in the past, such as suicide bombers. However, the Taliban are focused on gaining control of Afghanistan, whereas IS is committed to global jihad.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Taliban intelligence service told reporters in Kabul that the agency had apprehended around 600 IS members, including major officials and financial backers. 

In addition, at least 33 IS fighters have been killed in gunfights with Taliban security forces, according to the spokesman, Khalil Hamraz.

Source: Global News

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