A suicide bomber killed at least 23 people, including the country's deputy head of intelligence, in an attack near a mosque in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, officials said.

Lutfullah Mashal, governor of Laghman province who escaped injury in the attack, said the bomber burst from a shop and blew himself up while officials were getting into cars outside the mosque in the provincial capital Mehtar Lam.

He said the 23 dead included two provincial officials as well as Abdullah Laghmani, deputy head of the powerful National Directorate for Security and one of the highest-ranking security officials in President Hamid Karzai's government to be killed.

"It is obviously the work of the Taliban who are trying to destabilize Afghanistan by trampling Islamic values," Mashal said. He said 36 people were wounded.

Violence in Afghanistan this year reached its highest level since the Taliban were ousted by US-backed Afghan forces in 2001, escalating further in the run-up to a presidential election last month, the result of which has yet to be announced.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the Islamist group had sent a suicide bomber to carry out the Laghman attack. The presidential palace confirmed the death toll, including Laghmani.

(China Daily via agencies September 3, 2009)