Mosque Suicide Attack Kills 6 in Afghanistan
A suicide bomber on Friday attacked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, assassinating a district police chief and killing at least five other people, a government official said.
The attack happened as worshippers were leaving the mosque after the main Friday prayers in the Ghazi Abad area of the eastern province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan, said provincial governor Fazullulah Wahidi.
"The target of the attack was the district police chief and the attacker blew himself up at the gate of the mosque," the governor told Agence France Presse.
The district police chief, an intelligence officer, two police and two civilians were among the dead, with eight other people wounded, he added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Kunar has been a flashpoint in the Taliban's 10-year insurgency against the Western-backed government and 140,000 U.S.-led foreign troops.
Spokesman for the militia, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed in a text message to reporters that the district police chief had been the target of the attack and that "six policemen" had been killed.
The Taliban are known frequently to exaggerate and distort their claims in relation to attacks.
The attack came three days after coordinated attacks on Shiite Muslims in the capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif killed at least 59 people in an unprecedented assault on the holy day of Ashura.
Afghan officials fear that Tuesday's killings could unleash Iraq and Pakistan-style sectarian violence ahead of the scheduled departure of NATO combat troops in 2014.
Source: Agence France Presse
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