HERAT: An attack on a Shia mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat on Tuesday killed more than 20 people and wounded 30 others, officials said.

Hospital authorities in Herat said all the dead and wounded were worshipping in the mosque when a suicide bomber blew himself up.

Abdulhai Walizada, a local police spokesman, said there appeared to be more than one attacker, with a suicide bomber who detonated explosives and another who threw grenades at worshippers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack to hit

“At around 8pm tonight, a terrorist attack was carried out on a (Shia) mosque in the third security district of Herat city,” police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada said.

“Based on our initial information two terrorists were involved one of them wearing a suicide vest, who detonated himself while the second one was armed with a rifle. They are both dead,” he added.

A reporter said he had seen a number of bodies brought out of the mosque, leading to fears of a heavy death toll.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the attack took place at the gate of Jawadya mosque in Herat city, which is close to the Iran border.

Danish initially said he thought it was a car bomb and tweeted that there was a possibility that it was a improvised explosive device.

The attack comes a day after an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, which was claimed by the militant Islamic State group (IS), killed two people.

IS have been targeting Shia minority crowds and mosques in Afghanistan for around a year.

Afghanistan, which has seen more than 1,700 civilian deaths so far this year.

The country has traditionally been relatively free of the sectarian violence common in Iraq or Syria but jihadists from the local branch of the militant Islamic State group have repeatedly attacked the mainly Shia Hazara minority in the past year.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2017