A suicide bomber attacked a Shi’ite Muslim shrine in central Kabul on Tuesday. The toll is expected to rise.

Kabul / NationalTurk – At least 34 people were killed in twin shrine bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Tuesday, according to initial reports. Taliban is the behind the bloodiest attack.

A massive blast at a shrine in central Kabul where Shiite Muslims had gathered to mark the holy day of Ashura left at least 30 people dead including children, women and older people. A suicide bomber had detonated explosives at the gate of the shrine, exploding himself and nearby praying Muslims into bits. Muslim body parts flew everywhere, aneye witness decribed.

Separately, four people were killed in Mazar-i-Sharif when another blast struck a shrine in the northern city.

Taliban Massacre : Sunni Shiite Struggle costs innocent Muslim lives

Taliban has banned Shiites from marking Ashura in public. This year, there are more Ashura monuments around the city than usual including black shrines and flags. The Taliban is Sunni but use harsh Shi’a law.

Sunni and Shia Islam are the two major denominations of Islam. The demographic breakdown between the two denominations is difficult to assess and varies by source, but a good approximation is that 80–90% of the world’s Muslims are Sunni and 5 –20% are Shia, with most Shias belonging to the Twelver tradition and the rest divided between several other groups.

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