A suicide bomb attack on the funeral of a leading cleric killed by suspected Taliban militants left at least 24 people dead in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, including one of the country’s top police officers, witnesses and officials said.
Many other people were wounded when the blast ripped through a mosque in the centre of the city, the birthplace of the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime that was ousted by United States-led forces three-and-a-half years ago.
The attack was the worst in Afghanistan this year and one of the most serious since the fall of the Taliban, which gave shelter and support to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
It came as prayers were given for Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz — a close supporter of US-backed President Hamid Karzai — who was gunned down on Sunday after recently speaking out against fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
The chief of police in the capital, Kabul, and some of his bodyguards died when the suicide bomber blew himself up near them, a correspondent for news agency AFP at the scene said, while officials said other senior provincial and government officials were at the ceremony.
An Afghan intelligence official also said police chief General Akram Khakraizwall was killed, while other officials said he was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
Interior ministry spokesperson Lutfullah Mashal said ”at least two dozen people” died in the blast and a number of high-ranking provincial and government officials were in the mosque at the time.
”The blast took place around 9am this morning during prayers for the religious leader. The exact number of casualties is not known yet, but dozens have been killed and dozens have been injured,” he said.
The AFP correspondent said he saw ”at least 27 dead bodies” at the scene, but the figure could not be confirmed.
”A man in military uniform approached Khakraizwall and detonated the bomb, which killed Khakraizwall, his bodyguards and people around him. It was a suicide attack,” he said.
”There were some 50 to 60 people inside the mosque when the explosion occurred. This was a very big explosion and there is blood everywhere in the mosque and outside it.
”Human limbs are scattered all over the mosque compound.”
A police officer said the fate of the other officials caught up in the blast was unknown.
The attack will raise fears that Taliban militants, who continue to wage a guerrilla revolt in southern and eastern Afghanistan, are further stepping up a renewed onslaught that has left more than 250 people dead this year.
Most of those killed have been militants themselves.
The hard-liners claimed responsibility after two armed men on a motorcycle on Sunday gunned down cleric Fayyaz, who was chief of Kandahar’s Islamic Council.
Fayyaz organised a meeting of other Afghan Islamic clerics in Kandahar last week in which the council of ulemas, or scholars, revoked the title of Amirul Mominine, the leader of all believers, given to Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Kandahar has been hit by previous bombings, including twin roadside blasts on March 17 that killed five people and wounded more than 30 while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Kabul.
On Monday, up to 16 militants and four police officers were killed in a series of attacks in southern Afghanistan.
More than 18 000 coalition troops, including about 16 000 US forces, are in Afghanistan hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. — Sapa-AFP