Taliban Killed 12 People In Mosque Blast Near Kabul in Afghanistan

An explosion at a mosque on the outskirts of the Afghan capital during Friday prayers killed at least 12 worshipers, police said, breaking the relative calm of a three-day ceasefire.

“The death toll has risen to 12, including the mosque imam, and another 15 are wounded,” said Ferdaws Framurz, a spokesman for the Kabul police, updating an earlier number.

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He said the blast occurred inside a mosque in the Shakar Darah district of Kabul province.

The blast is the first major incident since a temporary truce between the Taliban and government troops took effect on Thursday.

The warring parties agreed to the truce to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, only the fourth such disruption to fighting in the nearly two-decade conflict.

Deadly violence has rocked the country in recent weeks after the US military began formally withdrawing its 2,500 remaining soldiers from Afghanistan on May 1.

Last week, a series of explosions outside a girls’ school in the capital killed more than 50 people, most of them teenage students.

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