1 killed, 3 wounded in explosion in Kabul

explosion

KABUL, June 2 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and three others were wounded in a bomb explosion in downtown Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed.

"One worshiper was martyred and three wounded after an improvised explosive device detonated in the courtyard of Wazir Akbar Khan mosque at 7:25 p.m. local time," spokesman Tariq Arian told Xinhua.

He revised earlier preliminary reports that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber, adding that a bomb disposal team also found and defused explosive materials at the site of the blast after the incident.

The blast damaged two adjuncts and a main building of the mosque in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, where the cluster of foreign embassies is located.

A university lecturer and praying leader of the mosque, Mohammad Ayaz Niazi, was among the wounded, according to Arian.

The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The blast was the latest in a string of bomb attacks in the city within the past one month.

On Saturday, a journalist and a driver were killed and six people wounded after militants of Islamic State (IS) targeted a local TV channel's bus by a roadside bomb near a traffic circle in Kabul.