19 Dead in Afghan Mosque Suicide Bombing

June 2, 2005

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/international/asia/02afghanistan.html

On June 2, 2005 The New York Times reported, "A suicide bomber detonated a powerful bomb during a mourning ceremony in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing 19 people, among them the Kabul police chief, and wounding 52 others, the Interior Ministry said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the three and a half years since the Taliban were removed from power. The attack took place during mourning for an eminent Muslim cleric, Maulavi Abdullah Fayaz, who was assassinated in his office by unknown gunmen on Sunday. Gen. Muhammad Akram Khakrezwal, who was recently appointed the police chief of Kabul and who died in the bombing, was among the mourners packed into the mosque on Wednesday morning. The interior minister, Ali Ahmed Jalali, said he believed that the two attacks were linked, and he blamed 'enemies of Afghanistan.' The bomber was a foreigner, he said, without elaborating. 'We label them as enemies of Islam because they are attacking Islam, attacking Muslims, attacking sacred sites of Islam,' he said at a news conference in Kabul, the capital."