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At least three killed in an explosion in a mosque in Afghanistan

At the moment the attack has not been claimed.

At least three people were killed in an explosion on Friday at a mosque in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, which has become the epicenter of the recent wave of violence between the Taliban and their rivals from the Islamic State organization.

According to Taliban sources, the explosion occurred “during Friday prayer inside a mosque in the Spin Ghar district.” At the moment the attack has not been claimed.

“So far we have three dead and 15 injured,” a local hospital doctor told AFP. Among the wounded is the imam of the mosque.

The bomb was hidden in a loudspeaker, located near the magnet, Walli Mohammed, a resident of the neighborhood, told AFP.

The charge exploded when the loudspeaker was turned on to start the prayer, he added.

The blast occurred on the outskirts of Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border that has become a stronghold for the Afghan branch of the jihadist group Islamic State, known as IS-K.

In this province, the local press has reported in recent weeks a series of killings, attributed to conflicts between the Taliban and IS-K fighters.

“Under our control”

Since taking power in Afghanistan on August 15, the Taliban, who have made security their priority after 20 years of war, have faced a wave of bloody attacks by the Islamic State group.

IS-K has attacked the Taliban and the Afghan Shiite minority in recent weeks.

Born in 2014 and present mainly in eastern Afghanistan, IS-K is a Sunni Islamist group, like the Taliban, but it is even more rigorous and advocates a “global jihad”.

One of its most recent attacks, in early November against the National Military Hospital in Kabul, killed at least 19 people, including a senior Taliban official, and injured about 50.

More than 120 people have also been killed in IS attacks in recent weeks at two mosques frequented by the Hazara community, a minority Shiite, in Kandahar (south) and Kunduz (north).

However, the Taliban government tends to publicly downplay the threat.

The Islamic State branch in Afghanistan “is more or less under our control” and “is not much of a threat,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Wednesday at a press conference announcing 600 detentions related to the rival group in recent months. (I)

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