Nine killed as bombing targets gathering of Shia Hazaras in Afghan capital

At least nine people have been killed and 18 others injured in a bomb attack near a Shia mosque in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

At least nine people have been killed and 18 others injured in a bomb attack near a Shia mosque in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The casualties were caused after an attacker, who had been stopped at a nearby security checkpoint, set off an explosive device he was carrying, said Nasrat Rahimi, a deputy Interior Ministry spokesman.

Rahimi said the assailant apparently sought to target crowds comprising members of Afghanistan’s Shia Hazara community. They had gathered to commemorate Abdul Ali Mazari, a Hazara political leader killed by the Taliban militant group in 1995.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly assault.

The Hazara community, the poorest of the country’s ethnic groups, accounts for about 22 percent of Afghanistan’s population.

Its members have been targeted in several large-scale kidnappings and killings across Afghanistan in the past, prompting demonstrations and sit-ins in Kabul and elsewhere.