An explosion claimed by the Islamic State at a Shia mosque in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday killed at least 11 people, a health official said, one of a series of blasts around the country.
A separate blast led to at least 11 more casualties in Kunduz, another northern Afghan city, according to a provincial health official.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Mazar-e-Sharif attack, according to a statement on the group’s Telegram channel.
The explosions took place during the Islamic holy month of Ramazan and two days after blasts tore through a high school in a predominantly Shia Hazara area in western Kabul, killing at least six.
“A blast happened in 2nd district inside a Shia mosque,” Mohammad Asif Wazeri, the spokesman for the Taliban commander in Mazar-e-Sharif told Reuters.
Zia Zendani, the spokesman for the provincial health authority, said 11 people had been killed and 32 wounded in the blast.
The Shia community, a religious minority in Afghanistan, is frequently targeted by Sunni militant groups, including the Islamic State.
Hospitals in Kunduz had received 11 killed or wounded people in a separate explosion, according to Najeebullah Sahel, from Kunduz’s provincial health authority.
An interior ministry spokesman said a roadside blast had targeted a van of military mechanics in Kunduz and said school students were among the wounded. He added another roadside blast in the capital, Kabul, had wounded three, including a child.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan on human rights, condemned the blasts.