Afghan Suicide attack kills 23, wounds 31: governor (Roundup)

Apr 17, 2008, 18:49 GMT

Kabul - A suicide attack near a mosque in western Afghanistan killed 23 including two police commanders and wounded 31 mostly civilians on Thursday evening, 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 Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'The attack killed 23 people and wounded 31 others, mostly civilians including several children,' Azaad said.

He said that the police chief of Khashroad district and the border police chief of the province were among dead people.

He said the attack was carried out by suicide bombers in an area 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 that the death toll 'might rise' as residents took away a lot of dead bodies of their relatives to their homes.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, but such attacks in the past have been carried out by Taliban insurgents, whose regime was ousted in late 2001 by US-led invasion.

Taliban militants have recently largely relied on the use of suicide attacks, a tactic unknown in Afghanistan until 2003 and widely believed to have been copied from Iraqi insurgents.