Update Berita Keganasan di Afghanistan | Taliban dakwa kuasai 85 peratus
"At around 8:00pm (1530 GMT) tonight, a terrorist attack was carried out on a mosque in the third security district of Herat city," Herat police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada told AFP news agency.
"Based on our initial information two terrorists were involved one of them wearing a suicide vest, who detonated himself while the second one was armed with a rifle. They are both dead," he added.
The attack took place in the middle of evening prayers when the mosque was packed with about 300 worshippers.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi has denied responsibility for the deadly attack [Hamed Sarfarazi/AP]Packed with worshipers
Hadid said he rushed to the mosque after hearing about the explosion. He was told the attacker first fired on the private guards outside the mosque before entering. When inside, he fired on the praying worshippers until his rifle jammed then he blew himself up.
Dozens of local residents, who are mostly Shias, attacked the police station pelting it with stones and setting it on fire, said Jalani Farhad, the provincial governor's spokesman. They were apparently angry at the late response of the police.
Shias are a minority in Afghanistan and have been threatened by the affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group that operates in the country's east.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi has denied responsibility for the deadly attack.
The explosion at the mosque comes a day after an attack on the Iraqi emb assy in Kabul, which was claimed by the ISIL group also known as ISIS, killed two people.
Afghanistan's national unity government said it strongly condemned the Herat attack, describing it in a statement as an "anti-Islam act".
It also called "on the Muslim people of Afghanistan, as well as on the religious scholars, to stand united against the barbaric actions of the terrorists".
President Ashraf Ghani said that "terrorists cannot create sectarian divisions among our people".
The explosion at the mosque comes a day after an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul [Hoshang Hashimi/AFP]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/...nce-hit-deadly-explosion-170801163417483.html