<p>A bombing in a mosque on the grounds of Afghanistan's interior ministry in Kabul killed four people and wounded 25 others on Wednesday, an official said, with injured patients claiming it was a suicide attack.</p>.<p>Since the Taliban returned to power last August they have made security a priority but attacks have ramped up in recent months, with officials trying to downplay them.</p>.<p>Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor said an explosion occurred at a mosque of the ministry when worshippers were offering mid-day prayers.</p>.<p>"Four worshippers were martyred and 25 others were injured," he said in a statement to reporters, adding that an investigation was being conducted.</p>.<p>Takor had earlier said the explosion had occurred at a mosque located "at a distance from the interior ministry".</p>.<p>Italian non-governmental organisation Emergency, which operates a hospital in Kabul, said it had received 20 male patients, two "dead on arrival", following "a bomb attack in a mosque at the interior ministry".</p>.<p>"The number of injured people arriving increased and they reported seeing a man detonate a device," said Emergency country director Dejan Panic.</p>.<p>"It was a suicide attack," he added in a statement, quoting patients.</p>.<p>On Wednesday afternoon the Emergency hospital was closely guarded by Taliban forces, who were also heavily deployed around the scene of the attack.</p>.<p>The latest blast comes after a suicide bombing on Friday killed 53 people in a Kabul classroom, including 46 girls and women, according to a UN toll.</p>.<p>Witnesses said the attacker blew himself up in the women's section of a gender-segregated classroom at a study hall in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood -- an enclave of the historically oppressed Shiite Hazara community.</p>.<p>No group has so far claimed responsibility for that attack, which Taliban authorities said claimed 25 lives.</p>.<p>However, the jihadist group Islamic State, which considers Shiites heretics, has carried out several deadly attacks in the same area targeting girls, schools and mosques.</p>.<p>The Taliban were also accused of plotting attacks on the Hazara community as they waged a two-decade insurgency against the old US-led regime which collapsed last August.</p>.<p>The hardline Islamists' return to power in Afghanistan last year brought an end to that insurgency and a dramatic decline in violence.</p>.<p>The Taliban movement -- made up primarily of ethnic Pashtuns -- has pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security threats.</p>
<p>A bombing in a mosque on the grounds of Afghanistan's interior ministry in Kabul killed four people and wounded 25 others on Wednesday, an official said, with injured patients claiming it was a suicide attack.</p>.<p>Since the Taliban returned to power last August they have made security a priority but attacks have ramped up in recent months, with officials trying to downplay them.</p>.<p>Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor said an explosion occurred at a mosque of the ministry when worshippers were offering mid-day prayers.</p>.<p>"Four worshippers were martyred and 25 others were injured," he said in a statement to reporters, adding that an investigation was being conducted.</p>.<p>Takor had earlier said the explosion had occurred at a mosque located "at a distance from the interior ministry".</p>.<p>Italian non-governmental organisation Emergency, which operates a hospital in Kabul, said it had received 20 male patients, two "dead on arrival", following "a bomb attack in a mosque at the interior ministry".</p>.<p>"The number of injured people arriving increased and they reported seeing a man detonate a device," said Emergency country director Dejan Panic.</p>.<p>"It was a suicide attack," he added in a statement, quoting patients.</p>.<p>On Wednesday afternoon the Emergency hospital was closely guarded by Taliban forces, who were also heavily deployed around the scene of the attack.</p>.<p>The latest blast comes after a suicide bombing on Friday killed 53 people in a Kabul classroom, including 46 girls and women, according to a UN toll.</p>.<p>Witnesses said the attacker blew himself up in the women's section of a gender-segregated classroom at a study hall in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood -- an enclave of the historically oppressed Shiite Hazara community.</p>.<p>No group has so far claimed responsibility for that attack, which Taliban authorities said claimed 25 lives.</p>.<p>However, the jihadist group Islamic State, which considers Shiites heretics, has carried out several deadly attacks in the same area targeting girls, schools and mosques.</p>.<p>The Taliban were also accused of plotting attacks on the Hazara community as they waged a two-decade insurgency against the old US-led regime which collapsed last August.</p>.<p>The hardline Islamists' return to power in Afghanistan last year brought an end to that insurgency and a dramatic decline in violence.</p>.<p>The Taliban movement -- made up primarily of ethnic Pashtuns -- has pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security threats.</p>