KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct 16, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - The Islamic State group on

Saturday claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a Shiite mosque
in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar that killed at least 41 people and
injured scores more.

  The Friday assault came just a week after another IS-claimed attack on
Shiite worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz that killed
more than 60 people.

  In a statement released on its Telegram channels, the jihadist group said
two Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) suicide bombers carried out separate
attacks on different parts of the mosque in Kandahar -- the spiritual
heartland of the Taliban -- while worshippers prayed inside.

  The group, a bitter rival of fellow Sunni Islamist movement the Taliban,
which swept back to power in Afghanistan in August as the United States and
its allies withdrew, regards Shiite Muslims as heretics.

  UK-based conflict analysis firm ExTrac said Friday's assault was the first
by IS-K in Kandahar, and the fourth mass casualty massacre since the Taliban
took Kabul.

  ExTrac researcher Abdul Sayed told AFP the attack was "challenging the
Taliban claims of holding control on the country. If the Taliban can't
protect Kandahar from an IS-K attack, how could it protect the rest of the
country?"

  Inside the mosque, after the blast, the walls were pockmarked with shrapnel
and volunteers swept up debris in the ornately painted prayer hall. Rubble
lay in an entrance corridor.

  In the wake of the explosions, Kandahar police chief Maulvi Mehmood said "a
brutal attack has been witnessed on a Shiite mosque as a result of which a
huge number of our countrymen have lost their lives".

  In a video statement, Mehmood said security for the mosque had been
provided by guards from the Shiite community but that henceforth the Taliban
would take charge of its protection.

  Hafiz Abdulhai Abbas, director of health for Kandahar, told AFP 41 people
had been killed about 70 wounded, according to hospital information.

  At least 15 ambulances were seen rushing to and from the scene, as Taliban
security cordoned off the area.

  "We are overwhelmed," a doctor at the city's central Mirwais hospital told
AFP.

  "There are too many dead bodies and wounded people brought to our hospital.
We are expecting more to come. We are in urgent need of blood. We have asked
all the local media in Kandahar to ask people to come and donate blood."

  - Many worshippers -

  Eyewitnesses spoke of gunfire alongside the explosions, and a security
guard assigned to protect the mosque said three of his comrades had been shot
as the bombers fought their way in.

  Sayed Rohullah told AFP: "It was the Friday prayer time, and when we were
preparing I heard shots. Two people had entered the mosque.

  "They had opened fire on the guards and in response the guards had also
opened fire on them. One of them committed a suicide blast inside the
mosque."

  Other bombs were detonated in crowded areas outside the main building, he
and other witnesses said.

  "We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the
Shiite brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number
of our compatriots were martyred and wounded," tweeted Taliban interior
ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti.

  The US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington condemned the
attack and reiterated a call for the "Taliban to live up to the commitment it
has made to counterterrorism, and specifically to taking on the shared threat
we face from ISIS-K".

  "We are determined to see to it that no group... can ever again use Afghan
soil as a launching pad for attacks on the United States or other countries."

  The UN mission in Afghanistan in a tweet also condemned the "latest
atrocity targeting a religious institution and worshippers".

  "Those responsible need to be held to account."

  The Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan after overthrowing the US-
backed government, has its own history of persecuting Shiites.

  But the new Taliban-led administration has vowed to stabilize the country,
and in the wake of the Kunduz attack promised to protect the Shiite minority
now living under its rule.

  Shiites are estimated to make up roughly 10 percent of the Afghan
population. Many of them are Hazara, an ethnic group that has been persecuted
in Afghanistan for decades.

  In October 2017, an IS suicide attacker struck a Shiite mosque in the west
of Kabul, killing 56 people and wounding 55.