Mass Funeral for Victims of Afghan Mosque Attack

Shiite community members in the Afghan southern province of Kandahar held a mass funeral ceremony for the victims of Friday's suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque.

READ MORE: Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said late Friday that two of its members fatally shot security guards at the entrance to the mosque before blowing themselves up inside between two groups of hundreds of worshippers.

The news agency identified the attackers as Afghan nationals Anas al-Khurasani and Abu Ali al-Baluchi.

Taliban officials vowed on Saturday to bolster security at Shiite mosques as hundreds gathered for the burial of the victims by their families. Sixty-three graves were prepared, but a provincial Taliban official said the official death toll was 47.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general, described the attack in a statement Friday as “despicable” and said the attackers “must be brought to justice.”

In a statement Friday, the U.N. Security Council stressed the need to hold everyone involved in “these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.”

It is the second consecutive week an attack occurred at a Shiite mosque and was claimed by the Islamic State offshoot in Afghanistan. Forty-six people were killed in an October 9 attack on a mosque in northern Afghanistan.

LINK: www.voanews.com/a/funerals-held-for-victims-of-afghanistan-mosque-bombing/6273461.html