CAIRO, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Egypt strongly condemned the recent suicide attack on a gathering of Afghan clerics in the capital Kabul that left at least 14 dead and more than 20 wounded, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The attack, which took place on Monday against a gathering of clerics promoting peace in Afghanistan, was claimed by local affiliates of the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group.
"Egypt's government and people support their Afghan counterparts in the face of terrorism, which targets security and stability in the country," said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in the statement.
The suicide attack in Kabul came shortly after thousands of Afghan religious scholars collectively issued a fatwa prohibiting suicide attacks as baseless in Islam.
"The attack shows that this deviant group has nothing to do with the tolerant teachings of Islam," said the Egyptian statement, calling for worldwide unity to combat terrorism.
Afghanistan has been haunted by insurgency over the past couple of decades with the presence of different militant groups including the most dominant Taliban, in addition to al-Qaida and recently the IS.
Egypt, likewise, has been suffering terror activities at home that have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers as well as civilians since the army toppled former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests.
