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U.S. Bombs Hit Mosque, Kills 15 Worshippers
KABUL, Oct 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. military aircraft dropped bombs on a mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat, killing at least 15 worshippers and injuring more than two dozen others, news agencies reported Tuesday.
Abdul Hanan Hemat, head of the Taliban's Bakhtar information agency, said the mosque victims were among those wounded in overnight bombing by U.S. warplanes, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The raided mosque was in the Qalae Shaier district of Herat and was destroyed in the attack, Hemat told AFP.
"People who were praying inside were killed and injured but we do not know how many yet," he said.
Four more Afghans were killed in yet another bombing raid near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, AFP added.
U.S. planes on Monday inflicted "heavy casualties" when they bombed and destroyed a 100-bed hospital in the western city of Herat, AFP reported.
The Arab television news channel, Al-Jazeera, reported that more than 70 civilians had been injured in the attack, and most of the medicine and hospital equipment were completely destroyed.
The hospital was full of staff and patients when it was hit by the U.S. bomb during an overnight raid, Hemat said.
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia claims hundreds of Afghan civilians have been killed, but there has been no independent verification of the death toll.
Meanwhile, five Afghans were killed when American warplanes bombed a convoy of oil tankers carrying fuel towards the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on Tuesday, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported, according to AFP.
The tankers were eight kilometers from the city when the U.S. planes struck, causing huge fires. Ten other Afghans were injured, AIP said.
The oil was being brought in from the western city of Herat to Kandahar, which has been devastated by fierce U.S. bombing.
The southern Afghan city has been without electricity or water for over a week and is reportedly running short of fuel, AFP said.
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