Pak militant group claims responsibility for twin blasts in Afghanistan

Kabul, Dec 7 (ANI): A Sunni militant group based in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in Afghanistan that killed at least 60 Shiites last evening.

The deadly attack took place at a mosque in Kabul, where worshippers were observing a Shiite holy day (Ashoura-ah-SHOOR'-ah) that marks the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of men, women and children gathered outside the shrine.

In the second attack, a bomb on a bicycle exploded as a convoy of Shiites passed on a road in a northern city (Mazar-i-Sharif-mu-ZAR'-eh-sheh-REEF'). The Interior Ministry says police defused a second bomb planted near the first.

Religiously motivated attacks on Shiites are rare in Afghanistan, but are common in neighboring Pakistan.

A man claiming to represent a ruthless Sunni militant group claimed responsibility for the Kabul bombing in front of journalists in Pakistan, Fox News reports.

While the Taliban has condemned the attacks, a top Shiite cleric in Kabul said that "Muslims will never forget these attacks."

The Public Health Ministry has said that 56 people were killed and over 160 injured in the blasts. (ANI)