26 killed in Afghan suicide attack

KUNDUZ - A suicide bomber in the northern province of Kunduz killed at least 26 people and injured 37 inside a government building, an official said Monday.

The attacker detonated his explosives in the local statistics office at Imam Sahib district headquarters, Mohammad Ayub Haqyar, district governor of Imam Sahib, said.

The attack took place as people were lined up to collect their identity cards, Hayqar said, adding that he thought he was the bomber’s main target.

“The target of the bomber was me,” he said.

The incident is third suicide attack in three days. On Sunday, a suicide bombing targeting a branch of Kabul Bank in the city of Jalalabad killed at least 42 people, most of them Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan has seen a sudden surge in violent attacks with high civilian casualties in recent weeks. The Taliban-led insurgency has spread out of their strongholds in the south to eastern and northern Afghanistan.