Child killed in Afghan suicide bombing

A suicide bomber dressed as a woman killed at least one person, identified as a child, and wounded eight in an attack on an Afghanistan-Pakistan border checkpoint today.

Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of eastern Nangarhar province, said the suicide bomber had crossed into Afghanistan from the Pakistan side of the border. Abdulzai put the death toll at two and said 10 were wounded.

Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said one person, a child, was killed, and at least eight wounded. Three police officers, including a female officer who worked at the border checkpoint searching women, were among the wounded, it said in a statement.

Senior US military commanders say violence in Afghanistan's Taliban-led insurgency has reached its highest level since the Islamist militants were ousted after a 2001 U.S.-led invasion, with most attacks in Taliban strongholds in the south and east.

Police said the attack was in the eastern town of Torkham.

Mr Abdulzai said it appeared the suicide bomber was a man dressed as a woman. Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, a senior police officer in the area, said the bomber detonated explosives inside a room used by female security guards to search women.

Reuters