At least 16 people died when an explosion tore through a mosque during Friday prayers in Kandahar.
Dozens more suffered different in the Iman Bargah mosque explosion.
The explosion on Friday afternoon took place in the Bibi Fatima mosque, the largest mosque for Shia worshippers.
Pictures from inside the mosque show shattered windows and bodies lying on the ground and other worshippers trying to help.
One witness told AFP he heard three explosions – at the main door, where worshippers wash, and a third blast.
Interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti said on Twitter: “We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shia brotherhood in the first district of Kandahar city in which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded.”
Taliban special forces arrived in the area “to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice”, he further added.
The Second Attack in One Week
Last week, at least 100 people died in a deadly attack on a mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz.
The attack targeted a mosque used by the Shia community, most of whom belong to the persecuted ethnic Hazara people.
Shiite Muslim worshippers were in the site during the explosion, a Taliban police official said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But militants from the Islamic State group have a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.
Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said that the “majority of them died,” in reference to the victims.
