At least 80 killed and 100 wounded in Afghan mosque attack

At least eighty people were killed and about 100 injured on Friday in an attack on a Shi'ite mosque during crowded Friday prayers in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, although there is no official figure yet.

"A heavy explosion took place at the Sayed-Abad mosque, in which eighty people from the Shia community attending prayers have been killed and about 100 others injured," Ghulam Rabani Rabani, a former member of the Kunduz provincial council, told EFE news agency.

Nazir Naeemi, a citizen who was at the scene of the attack, told EFE news agency that "it seems that about 100 people have been killed and about 200 injured", although the number is still unclear in the absence of an official number from the authorities.

Former head of the province's Refugee and Repatriation Department Muhamad Akbar told EFE that when the blast took place "hundreds of people were gathered (at the mosque) for Friday prayers. I have information of more than 100 people killed and injured," he said.

Videos from the mosque after the attack show dozens of bodies covered in blood with severed limbs lying on the ground amid debris and the anguished cries of people scrambling to help.

The Taliban, who have controlled the country since capturing Kabul on 15 August, have confirmed the blast, but have so far provided no official casualty figures.

"There has been a strong explosion in Kunduz province that caused many casualties, we do not know the exact number of victims at this time," a member of the fundamentalists' Culture Commission, Jawad Sargar, told EFE.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told EFE that members of the Taliban "have arrived in the area and have begun an investigation".

The attack took place at a mosque in the Sayed-Abad area of Kunduz, capital of the province of the same name, a government official deposed by the fundamentalists told EFE, requesting anonymity.

The mosque "belongs to our Shia brothers, many people have been killed or died in the blast, but right now the number is not clear because we are trying to evacuate the victims," the source said.

So far, no armed group or organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack comes after at least two people were killed in an explosion on Sunday near the entrance of a mosque in Kabul, where a funeral ceremony was being held for the death of the mother of the Taliban's chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.

The jihadist group Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack, which was one of several it has carried out since the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan shortly before midnight on 31 August.

These actions have resulted in dozens of civilian and Taliban casualties, particularly in Kabul and the eastern state of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan and is a Daesh stronghold in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have launched massive operations against Da'esh in several provinces of Afghanistan, with the aim of eliminating what they consider to be the main threat to their government.