KABUL, Afghanistan -- A bomb ripped through a mosque in northern Kabul during Friday prayers, killing 12 worshippers and wounding 15, Afghan police said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in a surge in violence as U.S. and NATO troops have begun their final withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.
Afghan police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said the bomb exploded after prayers began. The mosque's imam, Mofti Noman, was among the dead, the spokesman said and added that the initial police investigation suggests the imam may have been the target.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied any insurgent connection to the mosque attack, condemning it and accusing Afghanistan's intelligence agency of being behind the explosion. Both the Taliban and government routinely blame each other for attacks.
One worshipper, Muhibullah Sahebzada, said he had just stepped into the building when the explosion went off. Stunned, he said he heard screaming, including those of children, as smoke filled the mosque.
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Sahebzada said he saw several bodies on the floor, and at least one child was among the wounded. It appeared the explosive device had been hidden inside the pulpit at the front of the mosque, he added.
The explosion comes on the second day of a three-day cease-fire announced by the Taliban for the Muslim holiday this week of Eid al-Fitr, which follows the fasting month of Ramadan. The Afghan government has also said it would abide by a truce during the holiday.
So far, many of the attacks in Kabul have been claimed by the Islamic State group's local affiliate, though the Taliban and government routinely trade blame.
Last week, a powerful car bombing attack in Kabul killed over 90 people, many of them students leaving a girls' school. The Taliban denied involvement and condemned the attack.
Aside from the Kabul bombing on Friday, the three-day cease-fire has largely held and demonstrates that both sides are capable of largely pausing violence in Afghanistan. However, it does not bring the Taliban and the Afghan government any closer to a peace agreement, and many Afghans fear that once violence resumes, it will only increase.
As Taliban fighters have pushed forward in the past few weeks, government-controlled areas around provincial capitals and towns have shrunk. In Kunduz, Rafiullah Hedayat, a former journalist, said gunfire is nearly constant, audible almost everywhere in the city every day and night, despite the cease-fire. The atmosphere is so tense, he said, that he doesn't leave his home unless it is absolutely necessary.
Many hoped the three-day cease-fire can build momentum for a longer halt in the violence. U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said he hoped the cease-fire would jump-start long-stalled peace talks intended to get both sides to agree to a permanent cease-fire as a key element of the political settlement of the conflict.
"I welcome the announcements by the Taliban and the Afghan government to observe an Eid cease-fire. Violence has been horrific in recent weeks, and the Afghan people have paid the price," he said in a tweet.
This is the third cease-fire declared to mark a holiday in the past three years. The first was unprecedented and allowed Taliban fighters to travel into government-held cities and towns. But some reports said the move resulted in large numbers of Taliban defections, and the cease-fires that have followed have come with orders for Taliban fighters to remain in Taliban territory and not interact with Afghan troops.
Past cease-fires have largely been followed by an uptick in violence, and many Afghans worry that the same might happen again. The Taliban launched massive attacks across the country after the end of an Eid cease-fire in 2019, triggering intense clashes with Afghan security forces. Violence also intensified after the cease-fire that went into effect in 2018.
Information for this article was contributed by Tameem Akhgar of The Associated Press; and by Sharif Hassan of The Washington Post.
