Suicide attack kills 23, wounds over 30 in Afghanistan

KABUL, April 18 Kyodo

Twenty-three people were killed and more than 30 wounded Thursday evening in a suicide bombing outside a mosque in southwestern Afghanistan, a local official said Friday.

The attack happened in Zaranj, the capital city of Nimroz Province, its governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said.

Most of those killed were civilians, including shopkeepers and several children, he said, adding that a district police chief and a commander of a battalion of border guards were also among the dead.

He said there might have been more than one bomber.

Nimroz is a remote desert area which is poorly policed.

There has recently been an increase in insurgents' activities there, while drug traffickers are believed to be smuggling drugs across the border into neighboring Iran.

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