6 people died in attack on mosque in Herat province of Afghanistan

A gunman attacked a mosque in western Afghanistan, killing six people, Al Jazeera reported, citing a government spokesman.

“An unidentified armed man opened fire on civilian worshipers at a mosque in the city of Andisheh in the Gujra district of Herat province at around 9 pm (16:30 GMT) on Monday,” Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Kani said.

“Six civilians were killed and one civilian was injured,” he wrote on Tuesday morning, Al Jazeera reported.

According to Tolo News, the mosque belonged to Afghanistan’s minority Shia community.

Additionally, an imam was also killed in the attack, local media reported.

Following the attack, the Iranian Embassy in Kabul condemned the attack.

No group has yet claimed the attack, however, the regional chapter of ISIL (ISIS) is the biggest security threat in Afghanistan and often targets Shia communities, Al Jazeera reported.

Meanwhile, the Taliban government has promised to protect religious and ethnic minorities since returning to power in August 2021, but rights monitors said it has done little to fulfill that promise.

The most notorious attack linked to ISIL after the Taliban takeover occurred in 2022 when a suicide bombing at an education center in a Shia area of ​​Kabul killed at least 53 people, including 46 girls and young women. For which Taliban officials have blamed ISIL for the attack.

However, Kabul’s new rulers claim to have eliminated ISIL from Afghanistan and are highly sensitive to suggestions that the group has found safe haven in the country following the withdrawal of foreign forces, Al Jazeera reports.

Taliban officials have reported a lower death toll from the bombings and gun attacks than other sources, in an apparent effort to downplay security threats, Al Jazeera reports.

A UN Security Council report said ISIL attacks in Afghanistan have declined due to “Taliban counterterrorism efforts”.

But the report also said that ISIL still has “substantial” recruitment in the country and that the armed group has the “capability to pose a threat in the region and beyond”.

ISIL’s chapter, spread across Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow in March that killed more than 140 people, the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades, Al Jazeera reported. It was the deadliest attack in India.