2012 Photo Contest, Spot News, 2nd prize
Photographer

Massoud Hossaini

Agence France-Presse

05 December, 2011

A young Shiite woman stands among the dead and injured, after a bomb blast at the crowded Abu Fazal shrine in Kabul, on 6 December.

About the photographer

Massoud Hossaini

Massoud Hossaini was born in Kabul in 1981, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. His father’s opposition to the Afghan communist regime meant the family had to flee the c...

Background story

Kabul, Afghanistan

A young Shiite woman stands among the dead and injured, after a bomb blast at the crowded Abu Fazal shrine in Kabul, on 6 December. The explosion was the result of a suicide attack during the festival of Ashura, one of the most important events in the Shiite Muslim calendar, and the occasion for large gatherings and processions. Up to 60 people were killed and 160 wounded in the blast. Although Afghanistan has some history of tension between Sunni Muslims and a Shiite minority, suicide attacks for sectarian reasons on such a scale are rare. No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack.

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