Daily Times

Kabul: Four bombs ripped through minibusses and a mosque in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, officials said, with at least some of the attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

The number of bomb attacks have dropped across the country since the Taliban seized power last year in August, but several deadly bombings had rocked the country during the holy month of Ramazan.

On Wednesday, at least 10 people were killed when three bombs placed on board separate minibusses exploded in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a health official and police said.

“The bombs were placed on three minibusses in different districts of the city,” Balkh provincial police spokesman Asif Waziri told AFP, adding that 15 other people were wounded.

Najibullah Tawana, head of the Balkh health department, said three women were among the 10 killed in the blasts on board the vehicles.

Hours after the explosions, the so-called Islamic State group (IS) claimed responsibility for the minibus attacks on social media.

It said on Telegram its “soldiers” were behind the three bombings.

Another bomb exploded inside a mosque in the capital Kabul late on Wednesday, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others, the interior ministry said.

Kabul’s Emergency hospital tweeted that five people had been killed in the mosque blast and 22 others wounded.

Several ambulances rushed to the mosque in Kabul to ferry the victims, witnesses said.

The ministry said the bomb was placed inside a fan in the mosque.

It was still unclear whether Wednesday’s bombings targeted any specific community.

Dozens of civilians were killed in Kabul and other cities during Ramazan that ended on April 30 in Afghanistan in the primarily sectarian attacks some also claimed by IS