A suicide bombing at a Shi'Ite mosque in northern Afghanistan has killed and injured dozens of worshippers, marking the worst attack since international forces left and the Taliban took power.
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The Islamic State group took responsibility for the carnage and claimed via its propaganda mouthpiece, the Amaq News Agency, that 300 people were dead or injured, a higher toll than cited by others.
Afghanistan's state-run Bakhtar News Agency said at least 43 people were killed and 143 others wounded in the powerful blast in the Khan Abad area of Kunduz city.
A deputy director for the province's health department said there were "around 50 dead and at least 50 wounded," while local journalists said at least 70 people were dead.
Details of the attack were sketchy but videos of the victims and the debris were shared widely on social media.
One clip showed men and women running down a street screaming as they fled the bloodshed.
The Amaq New Agency said an IS member detonated his explosive vest at the mosque while among the crowd of faithful from the Hazara community.
The ethnic group have been frequent targets of the Sunni extremists over the years.
The Taliban have so far said little on the attack, acknowledging only that a deadly incident took place and that special forces had been sent to the scene.
In mid-August, the Taliban took power in Afghanistan after US-led international forces pulled out.
The army and police disbanded and government officials fled, leaving a security vacuum in places.
The Taliban are enemies of IS and have been fighting with the Sunni group since it emerged in Afghanistan in early 2015.
In the past, IS attacks mainly took place in the capital Kabul and in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar.
According to Thomas Ruttig of the think-tank Afghanistan Analysts Network, the IS attacks do not mean the group has grown stronger in the country - at least for now.
But after losing their bases in eastern Afghanistan in 2019 and 2020, remnants apparently lived on underground and are capable of staging such attacks, he said.
After Friday's blast at the mosque, the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) spoke of "a disturbing pattern of violence," saying it was the third deadly attack within days that appeared to target a religious institution.
IS had claimed an incident on Sunday next to a mosque in Kabul.
An attack on a madrassa in Khost province in the east of the country on Wednesday had not yet been claimed by anyone, UNAMA tweeted.
Australian Associated Press