Dozens killed in suicide bombing of Shia mosque

A suicide bombing at a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar has killed at least 47 people and injured more than 80, in the second major attack on Shia worshippers in a week.

The Imam Bargah mosque was particularly crowded when the attackers struck, because the community had been holding memorial prayers for the victims of a previous bombing, in northern Kunduz province.

Last Friday’s attack, like the previous one, was claimed by the Islamic State Khorasan Province, which has a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia minority. Kandahar is the Taliban’s heartland, and this is the first time in recent years that its minority Shia residents have been targeted in a terror attack there.