By DPA,
Kabul : A suicide attack near a mosque in western Afghanistan killed 23 including two police commanders and wounded 31 mostly civilians Thursday evening, a provincial governor said.
The attack took place in Zarang city, the capital of Nimruz province, as civilians and police forces were attending an evening prayer, Gholum Dastagir Azaad, provincial governor chief, told DPA.
“The attack killed 23 people and wounded 31, mostly civilians including several children,” Azaad said.
He said the police chief of Khashroad district and the border police chief of the province were among the dead.
He said the attack was carried out by suicide bombers in an area that was very crowded at the time of the blast.
“It seems there was more than one bomber, because one person couldn’t carry enough explosive to cause such a big explosion,” the governor said.
Azaad said the death toll “might rise” as residents took away a lot of bodies of their relatives to their homes.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but such attacks in the past have been carried out by Taliban insurgents, whose regime was ousted in late 2001 by the US-led invasion.