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KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide bombing attack on Tuesday targeted at least 40 people in a meeting of Muslim clerics in the Afghan capital, Afghan officials said.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Public Health, Wahid Majroh, said that an additional 60 people were injured in the attack, which took place while Muslims around the world were celebrating the birthday of Prophet Mohammad .
The suicide bomber managed to sneak into a wedding hall in Kabul, where hundreds of religious scholars and clerics gathered to mark the coup, said the interior ministry spokesman, Najib Danish.
Nobody immediately claimed the attack, but the Taliban and a local affiliate of the Islamic State have targeted religious scholars aligned with the government in the past.
In June, ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted a meeting of the country's leading religious in the capital. This attack killed at least seven people and injured 20.
The body of religious leaders targeted in June, known as the Council of Afghan Ulema, issued a decree against suicide bombings and called for peace talks.
EI said it targeted the "religious tyrants" who belonged to the US-backed government.
The Taliban denied any involvement in the June attack, but they also denounced the rally.
The two militant groups want to overthrow the US-backed government and impose a severe Islamic regime, but they are deeply divided over leadership and ideology and have clashed several times.
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