Bombing kills 14 registering to vote

KABUL, Afghanistan — A bomb blast killed at least 14 Afghan civilians on Sunday as they lined up in a mosque to register to vote in coming national elections, according to officials.

The explosion was at least the sixth attack on voter registration activities in Afghanistan since authorities last month began requiring citizens to register to vote in person at centers across the country.

According to Bashir Khan, a spokesman for the police department in Khost province, explosives apparently had been hidden in the mosque and were detonated while some people were praying and others registering to vote.

He said that at least one woman was among those killed, and that 33 others had been wounded.

Mohammadin Mangal, deputy head of the health department for Khost, said that at least 12 bodies and the wounded had been taken to the hospital after the attack. (Some Afghans take the dead directly to funerals rather than to the hospital).

The attack occurred two weeks after a suicide bomber struck a voter registration office in Kabul, the capital, killing at least 57 people. The Islamic State in Afghanistan claimed that attack; Taliban insurgents denied any responsibility for it.

The Taliban also denied any role in the attack Sunday.

Voter registration began April 14, after voting cards issued in previous elections were invalidated because of rampant forgery.