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A suicide bomber stormed into the largest Shiite Muslim mosque in Afghanistan's Herat province Tuesday night opening fire on worshippers before blowing himself up, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens more, said the provincial governor's spokesman Jalani Farhad.

However Mehdi Hadid, a lawmaker from Herat, who went to the site soon after the explosion told The Associated Press that the scene was one of horrific carnage. He estimated at least 100 dead and wounded were scattered throughout the mosque. The attack took place in the middle of evening prayers when the mosque was packed with about 300 worshippers.

At Herat Main Hospital, Dr. Mohammed Rafique Shehrzai, confirmed 20 bodies were brought to the hospital in Herat city, the capital of western Herat province Tuesday night, soon after the blast shattered the late evening.

Shiites are a minority in Afghanistan and have been threatened by the affiliate of the Islamic State group that operates in the country's east.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the Jawadia Mosque, the largest Shiite Muslim mosque, in Herat.

Hadid said he rushed to the mosque after hearing about the explosion. He was told the attacker first fired on the private guards outside the mosque before entering. When inside, he fired on the praying worshippers until his rifle jammed then he blew himself up.

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Afghanistan mosque explosion kills at least 20 people ...

Civilian and security forces walk inside a minority Shiite mosque after a suicide attack in Herat, Afghanistan on Aug. 1, 2017 reportedly killed at least 20 people.Hamed SarfaraziAP

(KANDAHAR, Afghanistan) A suicide bomber struck a NATO convoy near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, causing casualties, the U.S. military said.

Lt. Damien E. Horvath, a military spokesman, could not say how many casualties there were, or provide their nationalities. The NATO mission, known as Resolute Support, "can confirm that a NATO convoy was attacked in Kandahar. The attack did cause casualties," he said.

Kandahar police spokesman Zia Durrani also confirmed the attack and the area on the edge Kandahar was quickly cordoned off.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Eyewitness Ghulam Ali, who runs a mechanics shop near the attack site, said the intensity of the blast knocked him out. When he came to he saw one military vehicle ablaze on the road. He stepped out of his shop but a sudden burst of gunfire drove him back inside.

He heard helicopters arriving and saw soldiers being taken away from the scene but could not determine the extent of their injuries.

Shah Agha Popal, who runs a vehicle parts shop also nearby, said he also saw soldiers being taken away by two helicopters. "But I couldn't tell if they were wounded or if they were dead," he said.

The combined U.S. and NATO troop contingent currently in Afghanistan is about 13,500. The Trump administration is deciding whether to send about 4,000 or more U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan in an attempt to stem Taliban gains.

The attack came as Afghan authorities in western Herat province tightened security ahead of a mass funeral for the victims there of an attack the previous evening that killed 29.

A suicide attacker opened fire inside a mosque packed with worshippers at evening prayers, before detonating his explosives. A second explosion came 10 minutes later.

No one has claimed responsibility for that attack either, but it came a day after the Islamic State group warned it would strike Shiites. The Sunni militant group considers Shiite Muslims as apostates.

Herat provincial spokesman Jilani Farhad said that to reduce the possibility of more attacks, a planned Shiite protest against the attack was to be held just before the burial on Wednesday afternoon, rather than at a separate time and location.

Along with the 29 killed, 64 people were wounded, 10 of them critically.

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Suicide Bombing Strikes NATO Convoy in Afghanistan - TIME

After a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Herat, relatives of the victims grieve for the loved ones they lost in the violence Tuesday. Hamed Sarfarazi/AP hide caption

After a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Herat, relatives of the victims grieve for the loved ones they lost in the violence Tuesday.

A Shiite mosque in western Afghanistan was stormed during evening prayers Tuesday, torn asunder by grenades and a suicide bomber's detonated vest, law enforcement officials say. By the time the scene had settled at the place of worship, at least 29 people were killed and dozens more were injured.

And local officials say the death toll could still rise.

"Two attackers entered the mosque and started shooting and throwing grenades at people," worshipper Mohammad Adi, who was hospitalized for his wounds after the assault, tells Reuters.

"Based on our initial information two terrorists were involved, one of them wearing a suicide vest who detonated himself while the second one was armed with a rifle," local police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada tells the news agency Agence-France Presse. "They are both dead."

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which unfolded at the Jawadia mosque in the city of Herat, near Afghanistan's border with Iran. Both news services note the Taliban has denied involvement in the violence.

The Associated Press describes the aftermath of the attack:

"[Local lawmaker Mehdi] Hadid said he saw several pieces of a body that was being identified as the assailant. Although it's not clear if there was a second attacker, witnesses in the area reported hearing a second explosion about 10 minutes after the initial bomber detonated his explosives.

"The mosque was badly damaged with windows blown out, walls and even the large dome peppered with shrapnel and everywhere was blood from the victims, said Hadid.

"Located just 50 meters (150 feet) away was an Afghan National Police station, but Hadid said the police were too frightened to take action and stood outside the mosque while the attack happened."

The violence follows on the heels of another deadly attack in Afghanistan, this one launched Monday on the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul. As NPR's Scott Neuman reported, witnesses described an embassy building that was racked with gunfire and several explosions.

Reuters notes that so far this year, more than 1,700 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan. The persistent violence has at times attracted protests from Afghans fed up with what they see as the government's failure to maintain its citizens' safety.

"Our leaders are doing nothing to stop this carnage," one protester said earlier this year, just days after a car bomb killed more than 150 people in Kabul.

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Suicide Attack On Shiite Mosque Leaves At Least 29 Dead In Afghanistan - NPR

Militant attacks are escalating. Afghan military casualties are high. Deserters number in the thousands. Kabuls coffers are depleted. American officials are cowering in their fortified compounds.

Thats the dark picture that the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction the U.S. governments watchdog agency for the Afghanistan war painted in its July 2017 quarterly report.

Since invading Afghanistan in late 2001 in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, the United States has spent $714 billion on military and reconstruction efforts in the country, SIGAR noted. 4,200 American servicepeople have died in Afghanistan since 2001. Most recently, U.S. Army private Hansen Kirkpatrick died in an indirect-fire attack in Helmand province on July 3, 2017.

As of May 2017, there were 8,300 U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan, part of a total NATO support force of around 15,000 troops.

But the heavy U.S. investment in money and lives has not resulted in anything resembling a winning strategy. Several top U.S. security officials characterized the war in Afghanistan this quarter as a stalemate that, if left unchecked, could deteriorate further in favor of the insurgency, SIGAR explained.

Between March 1 and May 31, 2017, the United Nations tallied 6,252 security incidents in Afghanistan an increase of nearly a quarter over the previous quarter. To be fair, militants are more active during Afghanistans warm summer months than they are during the bitterly cold winter months, so an increase relative to the winter of 2017 is not surprising.

However, attack are also up compared to the summer of 2016, when the United Nations counted 6,122 incidents. According to the United Nations, between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2017, 3,581 Afghan civilians were hurt and 1,662 killed in combat, roughly as many as were injured or died during the same period in 2016.

The causes of the casualties have changed. 1,151 of the civilian casualties in the first half of 2017 resulted from suicide and complex attacks. Thats a 15-percent increase over 2016 and more than in any previous six-month period since the United Nations began documenting civilian deaths and injuries in 2009.

The increase came largely from Kabul, SIGAR reported. Nineteen percent of the civilian casualties between January and June occurred in the city. One of the bloodiest terror attacks of the war occurred in Kabul on May 31, 2017. A truck bomb exploded in the center of the citys diplomatic quarter during rush hour, killing around 150 people and injuring hundreds.

Afghan troops are dying at a high rate, too. From Jan. 1, through May 8, 2017, 2,531 members of the Afghan armed services died in combat. Another 4,238 were wounded in action. On April 21, 2017, as many as 10 Taliban attackers reportedly wearing Afghan uniforms infiltrated the base of the Afghan National Armys 209th Corps near Mazar-e Sharif, killing up to 250 Afghan soldiers.

According to SIGAR, Afghan military casualties for the first half of 2017 are consistent with military casualties from the same period in 2016. As of May 2017, 12,073 Afghan military personnel were unaccounted for, SIGAR noted. Some are deserters. Others absences could reflect poor record-keeping, the watchdog group explained.

As with civilian deaths, Afghan military deaths in 2016 reached elevated levels and stayed there. The U.S. military headquarters for Afghanistan told SIGAR that Afghan troops losses steadily increased after Afghan forces took the lead in security operations beginning in January 2015.

Amid heavier fighting, the Taliban and other militant groups have barely budged. The percentage of districts under government control has stabilized at 59.7 percent, the same as in the winter of 2017, SIGAR reported.

But the relentless insecurity has had a chilling effect on American activities in Afghanistan. SIGAR warned of U.S. officials who barely leave their compounds for fear of coming under attack. SIGAR is concerned that U.S. officials, whether at State, USAID, Justice, Treasury, Commerce or elsewhere, cannot oversee the billions of dollars the United States is dedicating to Afghan reconstruction if, for the most part, they cannot leave the U.S. embassy compound.

Hunkering down behind blast walls damages not only the U.S. civilian mission but also handicaps the U.S. military mission, SIGAR added. In the long run, such extreme risk aversion and avoidance may even contribute to greater insecurity, since it limits U.S. diplomatic reach to the very Afghans necessary to foster stability, rule of law and economic growth, while sending an unintended but dangerous message to friend and foe alike that the terrorists should be feared and may actually be winning.

Kabuls finances are taking a hit, too. In the first six months of 2017, the Afghan governments domestic revenues declined a quarter year-on-year, according to SIGAR. Meanwhile, the value of the countrys illicit opium trade which helps to fund the Taliban and other militant groups increased from $1.56 billion in 2015 to $3.02 billion in 2016.

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Wow, Afghanistan Is Getting a Lot Worse - War Is Boring

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Suicide Bombers Kill 20 at Shiite Mosque in Afghanistan Wall Street Journal (subscription) KABULTwin suicide bombings inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Afghanistan's Herat province killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks targeting the minority. A gunman opened fire on ...

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