8 killed in Afghanistan suicide attack

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - At least eight people were killed in a suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, an official confirmed.

Governor spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told Anadolu Agency the bombing took place in the family area of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province.

He confirmed an Afghan local police mini-truck was attacked, and civilians, including children are among those killed and a number of others injured.

“Those are responsible for the bloodshed and killing who did not accept our just calls for peace, consensus of the ulema [religious scholars] and sermon of the al-Ḥaramayn as-Sarifayn [holy mosques in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]”, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said while condemning the attack he blamed on the Taliban.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Lying at a distance of less than 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Kabul, Nangarhar province is marred by pro-Daesh militancy and the Taliban insurgency.

The groups have bastions in the Khogyani and Shinwari regions and other districts of the province along the disputed Durand Line border with Pakistan.