Afghanistan: Khost mosque blast kills thirteen, wounds dozens

A minimal of 14 other folks were killed by an explosion at a mosque in jap Afghanistan that’s being aged as a voter registration centre, fixed with a effectively being knowledgeable.

Waheed Majrooh, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Successfully being, told Al Jazeera more than 30 others were wounded in Sunday’s assault, which took space inner Yaqoubi mosque within the metropolis of Khost.

The bomb went off as civilians gathered each and each for prayers and to register.

There used to be no immediate bid of responsibility.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, told Al Jazeera that the team used to be no longer all for the assault.

Safety considerations

Afghanistan is scheduled to retain parliamentary elections in October.

Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse, reporting from the capital, Kabul, said there had been a alternative of assaults in Afghanistan since the voter registration process started in mid-April.

« Attacks on voter registration centres, on election officials and election workers [show] clearly opponents of the manager strive to derail these prolonged-awaited elections, » Glasse said.

An estimated 1,000,000 other folks possess registered to take half within the pollso far, Glasse added, serene effectively wanting the manager’s target of 15 million registrations by mid-June.

« That now appears to be like to be a extremely distant prospect, » added Glasse, noting that many folks in Kabul were « alarmed to tear to any of these voter registration centres ».

« About a of them are in colleges and folks possess objected to this because they’re terrified about the security ingredient. »

Earlier this month, bombings at voter registration centres in Kabul and in Baghlan province killed in any case sixty three other folks and wounded more than one hundred.

The Islamic Relate of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, in most cases is named ISIS) team claimed responsibility for the assault in Kabul.