Move FM Global News

JALALABAD, Afghanistan – Dozens of Afghan soldiers have been killed and scores more wounded Friday in an explosion at a mosque in Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan.

According to AFP, at least 28 worshippers died in the attack, while another fifty-five people were injured. All the casualties are believed to have been members of the Afghan National Army.

The blast, which is said to have caused the mosque’s roof to cave in, took place during Friday prayers in Haska Mina district, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the provincial capital Jalalabad.

AFP said it was seeking confirmation of the casualties. A doctor at a Haska Mina hospital told the news agency “around” 32 bodies had been brought in, along with fifty wounded.”

The Taliban is operating in the region and so if ISIS, but at the point of writing no group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Dozens of people were killed and wounded and were taken in several ambulances,” Haji Amanat Khan, a 65-year-old local resident, was quoted as saying by AFP.

While Friday’s attack targeted the Afghan military, they were off duty and praying at a mosque which would render them as civilians.

“Civilian casualties are totally unacceptable,” the UN’s special representative in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, said.

The UN on Thursday reported that 1,174 civilians were killed and 3,139 injured from 1 July until 30 September, a 42% increase on the same time period last year.

(File photo: Afghan National Army cadets practice drills on the parade grounds at the Afghan National Defense University in Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit: Staff Sgt. Dustin Payne/U.S. Air Force).