According to a medical official and an eyewitness, suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque in southern Afghanistan filled with worshippers for weekly Friday prayers, killing at least 37 people and wounded more than 70.
The attack on the Imam Barga mosque comes a week after a bombing at a Shiite mosque in northern Afghanistan claimed by a local Islamic State branch killed 46 people.
According to Murtaza, four suicide bombers struck the mosque, an eyewitness who, like many Afghans, goes by one name. Two of the bombers detonated their devices at a security gate, allowing the other two to rush inside and attack the worshippers.
He told The Associated Press over the phone that Friday prayers usually draw roughly 500 people.
Survivors were seen stumbling around in a trance or crying out in agony on video footage from the site, with victims spread across blood-stained carpets.
On the condition of anonymity, a local hospital official who was not allowed to brief the media verified the death toll.
Shiite Muslims are considered apostates by the hardline group, which is opposed to the ruling Taliban. Since the Taliban seized power in August amid the withdrawal of US forces, IS has claimed responsibility for several devastating bombs around the nation. In lesser operations, the organization has also attacked Taliban fighters.
Bilal Karimi, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed the blast and said an inquiry was underway but gave no other details.
After decades of fighting, the Taliban has promised to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan. Both the Taliban and IS adhere to a strict interpretation of Islamic law, but IS is significantly more radical, seeing itself as part of a global Islamic caliphate with branches in Iraq and Syria.
Although both the Taliban and the Islamic State are Sunni Muslims, their ideologies are strongly divided, and they have fought each other on several occasions.
The Taliban have promised to protect Afghanistan's Shiite minority, who were persecuted during the Taliban's previous administration in the 1990s.
