At least seven killed in Kabul suicide attack

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 9, ARTSAKHPRESS:"In the explosion seven were martyred and seven were wounded," Najib Danish, the interior ministry spokesman, wrote on Facebook after the attack on Friday. 

According to Nasrat Rahimi, the deputy spokesman for the interior minister, a suicide bomber blew himself up while trying to enter a gathering commemorating the anniversary of the death of Abdul Ali Mazari, a former leader of the mainly Shia Hazara community. Mazari was killed by the Taliban in 1995.

The local TOLO news said the explosion occurred close to Mosalla-e-Mazari area in Kabul's sixth district.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kabul has seen a spate of deadly attacks carried out by both the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in recent months.

Friday's attack came less than two weeks after President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to join peace talks to end more than 16 years of the latest phase of Afghan war.