Blast at funeral in restive east Afghanistan, 18 dead
TALIBAN SAYS NOT INVOLVED All victims civilians, incident caps bloody year
JALALABAD: An explosion at a funeral in Afghanistan’s restive east on Sunday killed at least 18 mourners and wounded another 13, officials said, capping a deadly year for ordinary Afghans.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast which authorities initially said was caused by a suicide attacker but now believe was triggered by explosives attached to a motorcycle. The Taliban said on Twitter they had nothing to do with the incident -- the latest violence to claim the lives of civilians in the war-torn country.
“Our investigation has concluded the explosion was caused by a motorcycle bomb ,” Nan ga rh ar governor spokesman At tau llah Khogyani told AFP.
The governor’s office put the death toll from the attack near the provincial capital J al ala bad at 18, with 13 wounded.
The explosion happened during the funeral ceremony for a former governor of Haska Mina district who died recently of natural causes, a statement from the governor’s office said.
The twisted wreckage of a motorcycle--a popular mode of transport in impoverished Afghanistan--lay in the dirt at the cemetery. Pools of blood, clothes, shoes and hats were scattered on the ground.
While the Taliban is still responsible for the majority of attacks and casualties across Afghanistan, Islamic State militants have bee nona ram page this month.
The incident in Nangarhar, a volatile province bordering Pakistan and a stronghold for IS, comes days after the group claimed an assault on a Shia cultural centre in Kabul that left 41 people dead and more than 80 wounded. That followed a Christmas Day attack, also claimed by IS, near an Afghan intelligence agency compound in the Afghan capital that left six civilians dead.
On December 18, militants from the group stormed an intelligence training compound in Kabul, triggering an intense gunfight with police, two of whom were wounded. The Middle Eastern jihad is tout fit has gained ground in Afghanistan since it first appeared in the region in 2015.