24 killed in Afghan suicide attack
MEHTAR LAM. September 3. KAZINFORM A suicide bomber killed at least 24 people, including the country's deputy head of intelligence, in an attack near a mosque in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said, Kazinform refers to Arab News.
The assassination of such a high-profile member of the Western-backed Afghan security services, which are on the front line of an increasingly deadly Taleban insurgency, shocked the country just weeks after controversial elections.
Lutfullah Mashal, governor of Laghman province who escaped injury in the attack, told Reuters the bomber appeared from a shop and blew himself up while officials were getting into cars outside the mosque in the provincial capital Mehtar Lam.
"It is obviously the work of the Taleban who are trying to destabilize Afghanistan," Mashal said. He said 50 people were wounded. A Taleban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the group had sent a suicide bomber to carry out the Laghman attack, Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.