Kabul, Apr 30 (EFE).- At least six people were killed when an unknown gunman opened fire on worshipers in a Shia mosque in the western Afghanistan Herat province, officials said on Tuesday.

The gunman stormed the Imam Zaman mosque of Guzara district during Monday night, leaving “at least six dead and one person injured,” Ahmadullah Muttaqi, Herat information director, told EFE.

The interior ministry confirmed the attack.

Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani said the armed man barged into the mosque and began firing at the crowd inside.

The spokesperson said an investigation has been ordered.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the attack.

“UNAMA condemns last night’s attack on a Shia mosque in Herat which killed and wounded at least seven, including a child,” the UN agency wrote on X.

“Investigations and accountability for perpetrators and protection measures for Afghanistan’s Shia communities are urgently needed.”

Although no group has claimed the attack, the Islamic State militant group usually claims responsibility for attacks targeting the Shia minority, whom they regard as apostates.

The incident follows a suicide attack on a Shia Hazara community educational center in Dasht-e-Barchi in October 2022, which resulted in the deaths of over 40 people, mostly girls and young women.

In May 2021, an attack on a girls’ school in the same area claimed the lives of at least 110 people, mostly girls. EFE

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