Death toll rises to 11 in attack on Shia gathering in Kabul

The death toll in a mortar attack on a Shia gathering in Afghanistan’s capital increased to 11 from three, a government statement has said.

The death toll in a mortar attack on a Shia gathering in Afghanistan’s capital increased to 11 from three, a government statement has said.

A Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said in a statement on Friday that 95 people were also wounded in the attack, which was initially described as a rocket attack in western Kabul. Rahimi blamed the Taliban for the attack.

On Thursday, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The shelling took place on Thursday in Kabul’s western neighbourhood of Dasht-e Barchi, predominantly populated by ethnic minority Hazaras, as politicians and members of the public gathered to remember Abdul Ali Mazari.

Mazari was a leader of the Hazaras killed by the Taliban in 1995.

Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Khoshal Sadat wrote on Twitter that one person involved in the attack had been arrested and a compound where the mortars were fired from was surrounded.