HERAT, Afghanistan: A gunman stormed a mosque in western Afghanistan and killed six people, a government spokesman said Tuesday, with local residents claiming the minority Shiite community had been targeted. Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said that “an unknown armed person shot at civilian worshippers in a mosque” in Herat province’s Guzara district on Monday at around 9:00 pm (1630 GMT). “Six civilians were martyred and one civilian was injured,” he wrote on social media platform X early Tuesday morning. Locals said the mosque served the minority Shiite community in a district just south of the provincial capital of Herat city, and the imam and a three-year-old child were among those killed.

They also said a team of three gunmen staged the attack, contradicting the official account. “One of them was outside and two of them came inside the mosque, shooting the worshippers,” said 60-year-old Ibrahim Akhlaqi, the brother of the slain imam. “It was in the middle of the prayers.” “Whoever was in the mosque has either been martyred or wounded,” added 23-year-old Sayed Murtaza Hussaini.

While no group has claimed the attack, the regional chapter of the Islamic State (IS) group is the largest security threat in Afghanistan and has frequently targeted Shiite communities. The Taleban government has pledged to protect religious and ethnic minorities since returning to power in August 2021, but rights monitors say they’ve done little to make good on that promise.

The most notorious attack linked to IS since the Taleban takeover was in 2022, when at least 53 people—including 46 girls and young women—were slain in the suicide bombing of an education centre. Taleban officials blamed IS for the attack, which happened in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Kabul. Afghanistan’s new rulers claim to have ousted IS from the country and are highly sensitive to suggestions the group has found safe haven there since the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Taleban authorities have frequently given death tolls lower than other sources after bombings and gun attacks, or otherwise downplayed them, in an apparent attempt to minimize security threats. A United Nations Security Council report released in January said there had been a decrease in IS attacks in Afghanistan because of “counter-terrorism efforts by the Taleban”.

But the report said IS still had “substantial” recruitment in the country and that the militant group had “the ability to project a threat into the region and beyond”. The Islamic State chapter spanning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia claimed responsibility for the March attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow, killing more than 140 people. It was the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades. – AFP