Free Republic

A sizable blast has occurred in the Emam Bargha Ptima mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported. The explosion, caused by a suicide bomber, left at least 32 dead, a local health official said. Hafiz Abdul Hai Abbas, the director for provincial health directorate, told The Washington Post that the attack also wounded 45 others. “Dead bodies remain under the ruined mosque,” Abbas said, noting that the death toll is expected to rise. The bombing took place during Friday services, when the mosque would be at its most crowded. No group has yet taken responsibility for the incident. However,...

A large explosion tore through a Shi'ite mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during Friday prayers, killing at least 33 people and wounding 73, officials said, the second massive attack in a week targeting worshippers from the minority sect. A local reporter in Kandahar told Reuters that eyewitnesses had described three suicide attackers, one of whom blew himself up at the entrance to the mosque with the two others detonating their devices inside the building. ... The blast took place just days after an attack claimed by Islamic State militants, which killed scores of Shi'ite worshippers at a...

A suicide bomb attack on worshippers at a Shiite mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed at least 55 people on Friday (Oct 8), in the bloodiest assault since US forces left the country. Scores more victims from the minority community were wounded in the blast, which was claimed by the Islamic State group and appeared designed to further destabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover. The extremist group, bitter rivals of the Taliban, has repeatedly targeted Shiites in a bid to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan.

Three attackers with grenades, Kalashnikovs and explosive suicide vests struck at the Imamia mosque in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's restive northwest, around the time of the main Friday prayers. The attack comes two weeks after a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan killed 61 people ... violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent years, most of it perpetrated by hardline Sunni Muslim groups against minority Shiite Muslims, who make up around a fifth of the population. The suicide bombing at a mosque in southern Sindh province on January 30 was the deadliest...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition forces in Baghdad have killed the man believed to be the mastermind of recent bombings in the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said. Mahir Ahmad Mahmud Judu al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Rami and Abu Assad, was believed to be the leader of one of al Qaeda in Iraq's Baghdad networks, the military said in a statement issued Friday. The military said intelligence reports led coalition forces to a building in Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood Friday. They surrounded the building and called on the occupants to surrender but were engaged by small arms fire, the military...

Pakistani police say they found a letter warning of more attacks in the pocket of a militant killed in a mosque attack in Karachi earlier this week. The letter, signed by Asif Chotu, the current head of Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, claimed responsibility for the mosque attack in which five people died including two attackers, and several others were wounded, the BBC reported. The group was banned in Pakistan in 2001. Chief investigator Manzoor Moghul said it was Asif Chotu's style to leave his signature. He is believed to be an expert in making bombs and is said to have...