It's Friday, so something regarding a mosque is sure to be in play; today, it's a bombing of a mosque in northern Afghanistan-
A suicide bomber targeted worshippers who had gathered at a mosque in north Afghanistan for prayers to mark Eid al-Adha, killing at least 41 people.
More than 50 people were wounded in the attack, which happened as people were leaving the Eid Gah mosque in Maymana, capital of Faryab province.
Note that this is in the north, where the Taliban have less of a following. During the post-Soviet civil war, the northern part of the country stayed independent of the Taliban government; the US used a combination of air power, special forces and Northern Alliance fighters to roll back the Taliban a decade ago.
The tragic part is that it came on one of Islam's big holidays; Eid al-Adha celebrate's Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, although the Koran twists the Genesis story to have Ishmael as the would-be sacrifice rather than Isaac. It's a bigger party than the end of Ramadan.
"We had just finished Eid al-Adha prayers and we were congratulating and hugging each other," deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez told the AFP news agency.
"Suddenly a big explosion took place and the area was full of dust and smoke and body parts of police and civilians were all over the place. It was a very powerful explosion."
Since a lot of officials and police were at the mosque, it was a target for the Taliban as a way of getting at the powers-that-be. That's the underlying theme of a lot of Muslim-on-Muslim violence as of late (note the part V), where the jihadis go after the establishment Muslims.
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