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On this photo taken November 19, 2018, Afghan National Army cadets parade at a graduation ceremony at a training center in Herat Province. (Hoshang Hashimi / AFP / Getty Images)
KABUL – A suicide bomber blew up explosives during Friday prayers in a mosque filled with army soldiers in Khost province, in southeastern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 people said a spokesman for the government.
But a security official said the toll could be at least twice as high, with 30 others injured in the attack of a sprawling military base in Mandozai district near the Pakistan border.
"The initial report we have suggests that 10 people were killed. That happened during Friday prayers, "said Talib Mangal, spokesman for the governor of Khost.
The attack took place three days after 55 Islamic scholars and religious were killed by a suicide bombing in a hotel in Kabul as it commemorated the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
[[[[A suicide bomb attack on an Islamic rally in Kabul increases the number of dead]
No group has claimed responsibility for one or the other of these attacks. Ordinary Afghans and the US-backed government are struggling with the growing militancy of Taliban insurgents and Islamic states.
A Ministry of Defense spokesman, Sayed Ghafoor Javid, said during a phone interview that a helicopter had been sent to evacuate the wounded, but he had no precise figures on the number of dead and wounded.
Taliban militants have attacked army bases in recent years, but the Friday incident targeting a mosque was the first of its kind in such an installation. The Islamic State extremist group has, however, struck many mosques and Shia Muslim rally sites in recent years, killing hundreds.
Friday's attack should be seen as a new failure of the security services of the Afghan security apparatus, which has suffered heavy losses in recent years. President Ashraf Ghani has estimated that 28,000 people have been killed by national security forces in the last four years.
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