DHAKA: A suicide bomber killed an Afghan militia commander and at least 10 others in the eastern province of Kunar near the border with Pakistan on Saturday.

Provincial Governor Wahidullah Kalimzai said the bomber rode up on a motorcycle to the entrance of the government compound in the town of Asadabad and blew himself up.

At least another 40 people were wounded.

‘Most of victims were civilians and children who were either passing by or playing in the park,’ Kalimzai told the media, reports Al Jazeera.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the apparent target of the attack, a tribal elder and militia commander named Haji Khan Jan, was among the dead.

Jan was reportedly involved in a number of operations against the Taliban in his district last year.

‘The Taliban - these insurgent groups - are still active in parts of Afghanistan and they are going after some significant targets,’ Al Jazeera’s Reza Sayah reported from Kabul.

‘This is a big get for insurgents.’

The Afghan branch of the Islamic State (IS) of Iraq and Syria also operates in the province.

BDST: 1515 HRS, FEB 27, 2016
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