KABUL — An explosion ripped through a large religious function in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 60, Health Ministry officials said.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Najib Danesh, said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber and that the target was a gathering of Sunni Muslims in a large hotel to commemorate the anniversary of the prophet Muhammad’s birth.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in a big hall usually used for wedding ceremonies. Affiliates of the Islamic State have repeatedly targeted mosques and sites of worship of Afghan Shiite Muslims in recent years. The Islamic State, a radical Sunni group, regards Shiites as heretics.
Tuesday’s attack was the first of its kind against a Sunni religious gathering in Afghanistan.
Hundreds of people were participating in the ceremony, and there were fears that casualties could rise.
Ambulance sirens could be heard in several parts of the capital after the attack. Images on social media showed part of the badly damaged hall of the hotel.
Earlier this month, a deadly blast targeted a demonstration by hundreds of minority Shiites in the capital. Afghan officials said several people were killed in the Nov. 12 explosion near a high school and close to a gathering of people protesting Taliban attacks on Shiite areas in the Jaghuri and Malistan districts of eastern Ghazni province.
While it remained unclear who carried out Tuesday’s bombing, hard-line Sunnis view venerating the prophet’s birthday as sacrilegious. Although the anniversary is widely celebrated in the Islamic world, it is a holiday that extreme fundamentalists are trying to stamp out.
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