"The first suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest... in a mosque hallway, while the second suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the mosque's centre," the statement said.
The assault in the southern city -- the Taliban's spiritual heartland -- came just a week after a deadly suicide attack on Shiite worshippers at a mosque in northern Kunduz, which was also claimed by the IS group.
The Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August after overthrowing the US-backed government, has its own history of persecuting Shiites.
But the new Taliban-led government has vowed to stabilize the country, and in the wake of the Kunduz attack promised to protect the Shiite minority now living under its rule.
Shiites are estimated to make up roughly 10% of the Afghan population. Many of them are Hazara, an ethnic group that has been persecuted in Afghanistan for decades.
The Islamic
State – Khorasan is an affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) active
in South Asia and Central Asia. Some media sources also use the
terms ISK (or IS–K), ISISK (or ISIS–K), IS–KP or Daesh–Khorasan in
referring to the group. ISKP has been active in Afghanistan and its area
of operations includes Pakistan, Tajikistan and India where
they claimed attacks, as well as Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Bangladesh where
individuals have pledged allegiance to it. ISKP and the Taliban consider
each other enemies.
The
group was created in January 2015 by disaffected Taliban in eastern
Afghanistan, although its membership includes individuals from various
countries notably Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Myanmar. Its initial
leaders, Hafiz Saeed Khan and Abdul Rauf Aliza, were killed by
US forces in July 2016 and February 2015, respectively. Subsequent
leaders have also been killed; its leader Abdullah Orokzai was captured in
April 2020 by Afghanistan's intelligence service.
ISKP
has conducted numerous high-profile attacks against civilians mostly in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. In July 2018, ISKP bombings killed 149 in Mastung,
Pakistan. In May 2021, an ISKP bombing killed 90 in Kabul. In August
2021, ISKP killed 13 American military personnel and at least 169 Afghans during
the US evacuation of Kabul, which marked the highest number of U.S.
military deaths in an attack in Afghanistan since 2011.
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