Afghan mosque blast kills 18 including pro-Taliban cleric

Eighteen Afghans were killed and dozens were wounded as a blast ripped through a mosque in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, the latest in a series of attacks on worshipers.

The explosion went off as one of the people at the mosque stepped forward to greet pro-Taliban cleric, Mujib Rahman Ansari, before the Friday prayers, Mahmoud Shah Rassouli, a police spokesman for the province, said by phone. A spokesman for Herat’s governor, Hameedullah Motawakel, confirmed the death toll and the number of casualties in a separate text message to reporters.

It’s not yet clear who’s behind the blast. The Taliban condemned the attack in a Twitter post, saying Ansari was killed in a “cowardly” manner and they’re looking into the case.

The cleric strongly supported Taliban rule, saying in an event in Kabul in July that whoever stood against them must be “beheaded.”

The latest attack is the deadliest on worshipers after an explosion at a mosque in Kabul killed 21 people last month. An attack on a mosque late last year by an Islamic State suicide bomber killed more than 50 people in the northern Kunduz province.