KABUL, 13 November 2021, (TON): officials said “at least three people were killed and 15 wounded Friday by a blast at a mosque in Afghanistan's restive Nangarhar province, a hotbed of Islamic State activity.”

The blast, for which no group has yet claimed responsibility – underscores one of the many challenges facing the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan, with the UN warning the country is also on the brink of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.”

It happened during Friday prayers in Spin Ghar district of the eastern province, near the border with Pakistan.

A Taliban official told media "I can confirm a blast during Friday prayers inside a mosque in Spin Ghar district. There are casualties and fatalities.”

Walli Mohammed, a local elder and activist, told AFP a bomb appeared to have been hidden in a loudspeaker near the imam's rostrum.

He said “when the speaker was switched on to sound the azaan, the call to begin the prayer ritual, the device detonated.”

A doctor at the local hospital told "so far three killed, 15 wounded.”

Islamic State-Khorasan, the local branch of the jihadist group, first emerged in Nangarhar and was formally recognised by the group's central leadership in 2015.