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Suicide Bomber Attacks Afghanistan’s Top Imams, Kills 7

REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

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Joshua Gill Religion Reporter
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A suicide bomber attacked a group of Afghanistan’s top imams Monday in Kabul shortly after they officially declared suicide bombings haram, or forbidden.

Kabul’s 5th District police chief Ghafor Aziz told The Associated Press that the bomber detonated outside the entrance of a compound where the group of about 2,000 imams, known as the Afghan Ulema Council, met under the traditional tent of the council of elders, or the Loya Jirga. The explosion killed seven people, including one policeman, and wounded 20 others. It was initially unclear how many imams were among the dead.

Council member Ghofranullah Murad publicly read a statement less than an hour before the attack in which the council declared a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, denouncing the Taliban’s war in Afghanistan as illegal and forbidding killing by any means. (RELATED: US Rockets Pulverize A Taliban Command Center [VIDEO])

“The ongoing war in Afghanistan is illegal and has no root in Sharia (Islamic) law. It is illegal according to Islamic laws and it does nothing but shed the blood of Muslims,” the council’s fatwa read, according to AP.

“We the religious Ulema call on the Taliban to respond positively to the peace offer of the Afghan government in order to prevent further bloodshed in the country,” the fatwa added.

The fatwa declared that any means of murder, including all forms of suicide attacks and bombs, are sins according to Islam along with kidnapping, robbery, and other acts of violence.

Three civilians were wounded in another explosion in Kabul the same day after a sticky bomb attached to their car detonated, Hashmat Stanekzai, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, told AP.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for either attack, though ISIS and the Taliban are active in the area, the latter of which announced the start of their Spring offensive in April.

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