ISIL claims responsibility for suicide attack in Kandahar

The Friday assault came just a week after another ISIL-claimed attack on Shia worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz that killed more than 60 people.

In a statement released on its Telegram channels, the group said two ISIL suicide bombers carried out separate attacks on different parts of the mosque in Kandahar while worshippers prayed inside, Straits Times reported.

"The first suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest... in a mosque hallway, while the second suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the mosque's centre," the statement said.

At least 62 people have been killed and 68 others wounded after an explosion went off inside a Shia mosque in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, according to public health officials in the province.

The blast ripped through the city’s largest Shia mosque, known as Bibi Fatima Mosque or Imam Bargah Mosque, at about 1.30 p.m., its busiest time.

ZZ/PR