WASHINGTON, May 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least eight persons were killed Friday after a powerful bomb exploded outside an ancient mosque in Heart in western Afghanistan, said a Taliban official.
Maulvi Mohammed Mussa, an exiled Iranian Sunni Muslim cleric, and two of his bodyguards were among the dead along with another Iranian believed by Taliban officials to be the bomber, said heart Provincial Governor Khairullah Khaikhwa.
But, it was not clear yet whether the explosion was meant to target Mussa who had been living in Herat for several years, since his mosque was burned down in Iran.
Another Taliban official, Abdul Hanan Himat, chief of the Taliban's Bakhtar News Agency in the Afghan capital of Kabul, said that the explosion took place as Mussa was giving a ceremony.
"The people of Herat accused Iran. Behind the explosion is Iran," said Himat.
As Khaikhwa said the bomb, which exploded during afternoon prayers Friday, was hidden on a motorcycle driven to the front of the mosque. Others said it exploded inside the grand marble Jami Mosque.
Riots followed the deadly explosion, resulting in attacks on the Iranian Consulate as hundreds of people set fire to several Shiite Muslim mosques in Herat and destroyed several vehicles.
Himat said the Taliban evacuated the Consulate, and declared that he was unaware of number of Iranian diplomats there.
"They are safe. Iran is in touch with the [Taliban] authorities. They are in a safe place," said Himat.
Despite Iranian worries about sending its diplomats to Afghanistan after several Iranian diplomats were killed in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998, relations between the two countries has been improving steadily.
