Suicide bomber in Afghanistan, A suicide bomber attacked a funeral in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, officials said, in what appeared to be the Taliban’s latest strike against Afghans who have ties to the national government.

Among those killed in the bombing, in Takhar Province in northern Afghanistan, was a member of Parliament, Abdul Mutaleb Baik, who had gained prominence as a commander of forces that fought the Taliban during the civil war that gripped the country in the 1990s, according to a spokesman for the provincial government. A member of the provincial council was also killed, along with a number of Afghan intelligence agents and lower-level government officials.

The bombing took place shortly after 2 p.m. in the village of Begabad, near the town of Taloqan, the provincial capital, a once calm area that has had a rise in insurgent violence over the past year. The attacker struck as the mourners were finishing a short funeral prayer that traditionally comes just before the body is lowered into the ground.

The bomber rushed to the front of the crowd — near where Mr. Baik was standing — and detonated his explosives, said Baz Muhammad, 45, a tribal elder who was taking part in the service. Mr. Muhammad said the last thing he remembered was hearing a loud bang and a flash. He awoke with shrapnel in his leg and back, although his wounds were not life-threatening.

Later, at the hospital in Taloqan where the dead and wounded were taken, hundreds of people waited outside for news of family members and friends who had been at the funeral, Mr. Muhammad said.

Both President Hamid Karzai and the American officials quickly condemned the bombing, pointing to it as more evidence of the Taliban’s brutality. “This ruthless act of terror to target innocent people who had gathered for a religious ceremony yet again demonstrates the vile and vicious nature of the enemy who do not want to see the Muslim people of Afghanistan to perform even their Islamic rituals,” President Karzai said in a statement.

The American Embassy called the bombing “reprehensible,” and said it “further illustrates that the Taliban and other insurgents are waging a murderous campaign against innocent Afghan civilians, including women and children, and exposes as false calls by Mullah Omar during the Id al-Adha and other insurgent leaders on their followers not to kill civilians.” Mullah Omar is the Taliban’s reclusive leader, and in his message this year for Id al-Adha, the holiest day of the Islamic year, he called on his followers to refrain from civilian casualties.

Muhammad Tauhidi, the Takhar provincial spokesman, put the death toll at 30, while the Interior Ministry said that more than 20 had been killed.

A number of officials and elders were attending the funeral, which was for the father of the chief of the provincial fire department, said Mualavi Muhammadullah Wursaji, the Takhar provincial council’s leader.

Neither the Taliban nor any of Afghanistan’s other insurgent groups immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. But suspicion quickly fell on the Taliban and their allies, who often single out Afghan government officials and people close to them. In September, a suicide bomber who was believed to be a member of the Taliban killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council and a former Afghan president.

If the Taliban were behind Sunday’s attack, it would be the group’s second major suicide bombing this year in Takhar Province.

In May, a Taliban suicide bomber disguised as a police officer blew himself up during a meeting at the provincial governor’s compound. The chief police officer in northern Afghanistan, Gen. Daud Daud, and Takhar Province’s police chief, Gen. Shah Jahan Noori, were killed. Among the wounded was the top German officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Markus Kneip, the commander of NATO forces in northern Afghanistan.

But the Taliban are not the only insurgent faction operating in Takhar. Their allies in the Haqqani militant network are believed to maintain a presence in the province. A rival group, Hizb-i-Islami, is said to be active in the region; it is run by the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister who played a major role in the fight against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. And militants from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are also thought to be in Takhar.

On Saturday, an Afghan soldier — or possibly an insurgent wearing an Afghan Army uniform — opened fire on coalition forces in Farah Province in western Afghanistan, NATO and Afghan officials said Sunday.

NATO reported only that the attacker had been killed and that the shooting was under investigation. But the provincial police chief, Said Muhammad, said two American soldiers had been killed after a gun battle between American and Afghan soldiers during a joint patrol. The shooting was believed to have been brought on by an argument, he said.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility, saying the shooting had been carried out by an infiltrator. The Taliban often overstate their effectiveness, but Afghan soldiers have repeatedly turned on coalition forces, giving rise to fears that both the Afghan Army and the nation’s police force are being infiltrated by insurgents.

Source: nytimes