Kabul blasts kill more than 40 people at pro-Iranian Shiite cultural center

KABUL — A series of explosions at a gathering inside a Shiite cultural center killed more than 40 people and injured dozens more in the Afghan capital Thursday in the latest sign of rising violence in the city.

Hospital officials and residents said the toll from the blasts — in the compound of the Afghan Voice news agency in a Shiite-dominated part of Kabul — could increase.

The Islamic State claimed it carried out the attack, according to a statement on the group’s Amaq News Agency. It said a suicide bomber detonated one blast, which was followed by three other explosions.

An Islamic State link could not be independently verified, and the group has often asserted responsibility for attacks without providing clear evidence. But the Islamic State has waged a series of attacks in Kabul and has targeted Shiite Muslims, which the militants consider a heretic branch of Islam.

Earlier, the Taliban denied any role in the carnage — which served as another reminder of security shortfalls in Kabul and elsewhere even as Afghan and U.S. claim progress against militant factions.

[TV station among recent Islamic State targets in Kabul]

Scores of people were present at the compound, where the pro-Iranian cultural center is located. The gathering marked the December 1979 anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union.

Waheed Majroh, spokesman for the public health ministry, said the blasts killed at least 41 people and left 84 injured. One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the number of those killed at more than 50, adding 100 were hurt.

Residents said two explosions, possibly hand grenades, were heard. As people gathered from those initial bursts, a bigger blast shook the compound.

When victims were being transported to a hospital, one attacker hurled a hand grenade at them, some witnesses said.

Most of the victims were either educated young people or children who took religious classes at the cultural center, family members of the victims said.

Among them was Said Andleb, who had graduated from university a day earlier. Several journalists were among the wounded, officials said.

[Rockets strike near NATO compound in Kabul’s “Green Zone”]

“My son, 12 years old, was killed in the attack. My nephew was also there, and he has gone missing,” Ghulam Hussein, a weeping father, told reporters at a hospital.

In the face of rising attacks by the Islamic State against Shiites, President Ashraf Ghani’s embattled government has recently stepped up security measures for Shiite mosques by providing guns and funds for the community’s protection. The initiatives were arranged by the followers of the sect itself.

The presidential palace said in a statement that Thursday’s attack was a “crime against humanity” and an “unforgivable act.”

The attack comes weeks after Ghani said the Islamic State, which emerged in Afghanistan in late 2014, “was on the run” in the country following a recent series of joint offensives with U.S.-led troops.

One of Ghani’s aides, Haroon Chakhansuri, said “the defeated enemies of Afghanistan cannot stop us from having a prosperous country.”

“Such barbaric attacks on civilians will increase public anger toward the enemies and will further strengthen our unity and resolute for having prosperous Afghanistan,” he added.

Last week, Vice President Pence visited Afghanistan for talks with Afghan leaders and to give a speech to U.S. troops more than 16 years after the American-led invasion in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

In Kabul, Pence discussed the Trump administration policies that could include expanded troop presence in the country.

Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

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