By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA): At least 30 civilians, including women and children were killed and 40 injured in a terrorist attack on a Shia Muslim mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, according to the country’s Interior Ministry.

Armed men stormed the Imam Zamin Mosque, affiliated with the Shia Muslim community in the city’s Qala-e-Najara neighborhood, as hundreds of people were attending weekly Friday prayers.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish confirmed the casualty toll to Anadolu Agency.

“The attack [on the mosque] has ended with all three attackers killed,” he said, adding the assault began with a suicide blast carried out by a fourth attacker.

Ismaeel Kawosi, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health said up to 20 civilians lost their lives. The figures later increased to 30 people killed and 40 injured in the mosque.

President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has vehemently condemned what he called an “inhuman and un-Islamic” act, saying the terrorists could not divide the Afghan nation with such atrocities.

The Taliban have denied their involvement in this sixth incident of its kind this year.

However, the Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility in a statement posted on their propaganda site Amaq.

According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, four previous attacks occurred in western Herat province bordering Iran while the other two were in Kabul. Daesh claimed responsibility for two of these attacks.

Earlier this month, up to 31 people were killed following a suicide attack and subsequent gun battle at a Shia Muslim mosque in Herat.

[Photo:  Afghan security forces take positions near a Shia Muslim mosque after an attack during Friday prayer in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 25, 2017. Photographer: Haroon Sabawoon/AA]