Two Bomb Attacks Occur In One Week, Taliban Deploy Security Forces To Guard Shiite Mosques

Illustration of Taliban forces. (Twitter/@Badri313Unit1)

JAKARTA - Taliban authorities vowed to increase security at Shia mosques as hundreds gathered on Saturday to bury victims of ISIS' second suicide attack on Shiite worshippers in a week.

The hardline Sunni group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the Fatima Mosque in Kandahar, when a shooting followed by a suicide bombing took place in the midst of Friday prayers October 14.

A health official said the toll from the attack stood at 41 dead and 70 injured but could rise further.

"Some of the injured are in critical condition and we are trying to move them to Kabul," he said.

On Saturday, large crowds gathered to bury the white-robed victims in a mass grave in the southern city of Kandahar.

The Kandahar police chief said the unit would be tasked with protecting Shia mosques which have been guarded by local volunteer troops with special permits to carry weapons.

"Unfortunately they were unable to protect this area and in the future, we will assign special security guards to protect mosques and madrasas," he said in a statement posted on Twitter by a Taliban spokesman.

The attack on the Fatima mosque, the largest Shia mosque in Kandahar, also known as the Imam Bargah mosque, came a week after a similar attack on a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz, which killed as many as 80 people.

Attacks on Shia mosques and targets linked to the ethnic Hazara minority, which is Afghanistan's largest Shia group, are commonplace under the former Western-backed government.

There is deep shock that attacks have continued since the Taliban seized power in August, tarnishing the movement's claim to bring peace to Afghanistan after decades of war.

To note, since the takeover, ISIS has carried out dozens of operations, ranging from small-scale attacks on Taliban targets to large-scale operations such as Friday's suicide bombing, which killed scores of civilians.