At least 48 killed, 120 injured in Kabul shrine suicide bombing
The blast occurred at around 11:45 a.m. local time when hundreds of mourners were observing in a shrine the 10-day annual Ashura mourning rite, the holiest of the Shiite religious calendar, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in 680 AD.
"Latest reports from police sources in hospitals in different parts of the Kabul city said as many as 48 people were killed and over 120 more were wounded in the suicide bomb attack this morning, " General Mohammad Zahir, head of criminal investigation department of Kabul police, told local media.
"As many as 14 dead including two children and two women and 105 injured were admitted to hospitals belonging to the Public Health Ministry this morning from a suicide bombing that occurred in Abul Fazil-ul Abbas shrine in Murad Khani area," spokesman for Public Health Ministry, Ghulam Sakhi Kargar told Xinhua.
"Many others who were killed or injured are shifted to military hospitals, as we know, but there is no exact figure of those killed and wounded with our office," Kargar said, adding "the latest and final figure of the casualties will be released to media very soon."
No group or individual claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
However, some official sources who did not give their names told Xinhua that 54 were killed and more than 150 were injured in the booming.