Afghanistan’s Mosque Attack Leaves Six Dead, Confirmed in Herat

Six people were killed when a shooter broke into a mosque in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, according to a government spokesman.

According to Mr. Abdul Mateen Qani, the spokesman for the interior ministry, “an unknown armed person shot at civilian worshippers in a mosque” in the Guzara district of Herat province on Monday at around 9:00 p.m. (1630 GMT). 

“Six civilians were martyred and one civilian was injured,” he posted early on Tuesday morning on the social media platform X.

The attack, which happened in a neighborhood south of Herat city, the region’s location, claimed the same number of lives, according to the state-run Bakhtar News Agency. The mosque belonged to the Shiite minority in Afghanistan, according to local media outlet Tolo, which cited domestic sources for its account. 

While no group has yet claimed the attack, the regional chapter of the Islamic State (IS) is the largest security threat in Afghanistan and has frequently targeted Shiite communities.

After assuming command in August 2021, the Taliban government has promised to defend racial and religious minorities, but human rights investigators claim they haven’t gone far enough in fulfilling this commitment.

Following the Taliban’s takeover, the most well-known attack associated with IS occurred in 2022, when a suicide bombing at an educational facility claimed the lives of at least 53 people, 46 of whom were girls and young women.

Taliban officials blamed IS for the attack, which was staged in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul.

The incident, which was staged in a Shiite district of Kabul, was attributed by Taliban officials to IS. The new government in Kabul asserts that it has driven out the Islamic State of Afghanistan (IS) and is not receptive to the idea that the group may have found sanctuary in the nation following the withdrawal of international soldiers.

In an apparent attempt to minimize security risks, Taliban officials have often reported fatality numbers from bombings and gun attacks that are lower than those reported by other sources.

According to a January UN Security Council report, “counter-terrorism efforts by the Taliban” have resulted in a decline in IS assaults in Afghanistan.

However, the investigation concluded that IS still recruited “substantially” in the nation and that it had “the ability to project a threat into the region and beyond.”