Funeral attack kills 17 Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan — A bombing targeted the funeral of a local official in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 17 people, officials said.

Noor Ahmad Habibi, deputy spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said a rickshaw rigged with explosives blew up among people gathered in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, for the funeral of Gul Wali, the former district chief of Haskah Menah. He said about 13 other people were wounded.

Habibi said authorities now believe it was a remotely detonated explosion.

No one immediately claimed responsibility. The Taliban denied any involvement.

The bombing capped a bloody year in Afghanistan.

Militants have launched repeated attacks against Afghan army outposts, police checkpoints and the U.S.-led coalition.

Afghan forces aided by U.S. airstrikes have claimed growing success against the militants, but attacks on civilian targets have continued.

In an unannounced visit to the country in December, Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed the U.S. support for the country’s beleaguered government.

“We’ve been on a long road together, but President [Donald] Trump made it clear … that we are with you,” Pence said at the presidential palace in Kabul. He added, “We are here to see this through.”

The bombing came days after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bombing at a Shiite cultural center in Kabul on Thursday that left at least 41 people dead and dozens more wounded.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a sticky bomb exploded in a crowded neighborhood in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late Saturday, wounding 12 people, according to Gen. Abdul Raziq Qaderi, the deputy provincial police chief.

No one claimed the attack.