A suicide bomb exploded on Thursday outside a mosque as worshippers were leaving after prayers in southwest Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 24 people, the provincial governor told AFP. Two senior police officers were among the dead and 34 people were also injured, some of them children, in the attack in Zaranj city, capital of the Nimroz province which borders Iran, Ghulam Dastgir Azad said. “There was a suicide bombing in front of the city’s mosque and at this time we have 24 people confirmed dead and 34 wounded, some seriously,” he said, adding that most of those killed were civilians.It was not immediately clear who was behind the explosion, that occurred next to a popular market outside the mosque, but similar acts in the past have been blamed on Taliban militants.
Also on Thursday, Afghan and international forces killed 13 militants during operations in the south, while a top rebel commander was also captured.
Ten Taliban-linked rebels were killed in the province of Ghazni along a key highway linking the capital Kabul to southern Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It added “these terrorists were attacking passengers and supply convoys” and said two other rebels were wounded and some others captured.
Mahboobullah Sabawoon, the chief of Gilan district where the operation took place, confirmed the incident but put the death toll at nine. The defence ministry meanwhile said in a separate statement that three Taliban fighters were killed in an operation elsewhere in Ghazni. It gave no further details. And the interior ministry, in another statement, said a prominent Taliban commander was captured in the Taliban-infested southern Uruzgan province.
Meanwhile, NATO acknowledged that a privately contracted helicopter had mistakenly dropped ammunition and other supplies in an area where Afghan officials have said the items were picked up by the Taliban. NATOÂ’s International Security Assistance Force said on Thursday that the helicopter shipment of food, water and ammunition intended for police was mistakenly dropped in southern Zabul province.