KHOST, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, killing 15 Afghans. The suicide attacker walked into a hotel restaurant in the remote town of Urgun in the eastern province of Paktika and blew himself up, a witness said.‘Fifteen people have been martyred and 25 others have been wounded,’ Paktika provincial governor Mohammad Akram Kheplwak told AFP. He and other officials said it was a suicide attack, similar to scores carried out by the Taleban this year, but the interior ministry indicated the blast was caused by a mine planted in the building.
Kheplwak said most of the casualties were soldiers with a militia hired by US forces, who have a base in the area, to assist with patrols and searches. The commander of the militia and the governor of an adjoining district were among the wounded, he said.
Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary, who put the death toll at 12, blamed the attack on the ‘enemies of Afghanistan and of the government.’
The small hotel and some shops around it were badly damaged, said witness Mohammad Shah Faizi. NATOÂ’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the blast caused buildings to collapse and civilians were among the dead.