29 Wounded as Bomb Blast Hits Afghan Mosque

KABUL (Dispatches) – At least 29 people, including senior local government officials, sustained injuries when a bomb explosion ripped through a mosque in Afghanistan’s northern province of Baghlan.

Date: 14 July 2015 - 21:26

News ID: ۱۶۱۰۴

Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the terrorist attack took place as a large number of people had gathered at the mosque in the provincial capital city of Puli Khumri, located 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the capital, Kabul, for a public fast-breaking ceremony.
Deputy director for the Baghlan public health department, Abdul Halim Ghafari, said a female adviser to provincial governor Sultan Mohammad Ebadi and a provincial lawmaker were among those wounded in the bombing.
No individual or group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan faces a security challenge years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed Taliban from power, but many areas in the country are still beset with insecurity.
At least 13,500 foreign forces remain in Afghanistan despite the end of the US-led combat mission, which came on December 31, 2014. The forces, mainly from the US, are there for what Washington calls a support mission. NATO says the forces focus mainly on counter-terrorism operations as well as training Afghan soldiers and policemen.