JALALABAD -- A suicide bomber struck a campaign rally in Nangarhar Province Tuesday (October 2), killing at least 13 Afghans, officials said.
The attack is the first suicide assault since campaigning kicked off last Friday for the long-awaited parliamentary vote scheduled for October 20.
More than 40 individuals were wounded when the militant blew himself up among supporters of candidate Abdul Nasir Mohmmand in Kama District, said Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
Mohmmand is alive, Khogyani confirmed, but he did not say if the candidate had been injured.
Najibullah Kamawal, the director of Nangarhar's provincial health department, put the death toll slightly higher at 14.
Some of the wounded are in critical condition, he said.
An AFP reporter saw numerous ambulances delivering bodies and wounded patients to a hospital in Jalalabad, the provincial capital.
Scores of supporters were inside a hall listening to Mohmmand speak when the bomber struck, said Sayed Humayun, who brought his injured cousin to the hospital.
"I heard a big explosion," he told AFP. "For a while, I could not see. I thought I was blinded, but later I saw I was surrounded by bodies and people covered in blood."
The force of the blast caused the ceiling to collapse on top of the gathering.
"There are still people trapped under the rubble," Malik Zeerak, who was at the rally, told AFP.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) has taken responsibility for most of the suicide bombings in recent months.
