Kabul: A gunman attacked a mosque in western Afghanistan and killed six people, a government spokesman said, with local residents claiming the minority Shiite community had been targeted. Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said that “an unknown armed person shot at civilian worshippers in a mosque” in Herat province’s Guzara district on April 29 at around 9:00 pm (1630 GMT).
“Six civilians were martyred and one civilian was injured,” he wrote on social media platform X. Locals said the mosque served the minority Shiite community in a district just south of the provincial capital of Herat city, and the imam and a three-year-old child were among those killed. They also said a team of three gunmen staged the attack, contradicting the official account.
While no group has claimed the attack, the regional chapter of the Islamic State (IS) group is the largest security threat in Afghanistan and has frequently targeted Shiite communities. The Taliban government has pledged to protect religious and ethnic minorities since returning to power in August 2021, but rights monitors say they’ve done little to make good on that promise.
The most notorious attack linked to IS since the Taliban takeover was in 2022 when at least 53 people — including 46 girls and young women — died in the suicide bombing of an education centre. Taliban officials blamed IS for the attack, which happened in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Kabul.
