Over 7 killed in suicide attack near political meeting venue in Kabul
Kabul, November 16: At least seven people were killed and many wounded in a suicide bomb blast that in the Afghan capital on Thursday near a gathering of supporters of regional leader Atta Mohammad Noor, according to the interior ministry.
A spokesman for the interior ministry said the suicide bomber approached a hotel hosting the gathering in the Khair Khana district of Kabul, on foot. The dead included five policemen and two civilians, and many more were wounded.
President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday sacked the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, raising doubts over whether parliamentary and council ballots scheduled for next year will take place as planned.
According to United Nations figures, Kabul has accounted for at least 20 percent of all civilian casualties this year, including at least 150 people killed in a massive truck bomb attack at the end of May. It was in this area that a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Ramazan Hussainzada was killed last month. Hussainzada was also a senior leader of Afghanistan's Hazara community.