A suicide bomb attack on the funeral of a Muslim cleric who spoke out against the Taliban regime has killed at least 20 people, including Kabul's police chief in a mosque in southern Afghanistan.
Hundreds of mourners were crowded inside the Mullah Abdul Fayaz Mosque in the center of the main southern city of Kandahar when the bomb went off around 9 am.
Afghan Ministry of Interior spokesman Latfullah Mashal said Kabul's police commander, Gen. Akram Khakrezwal - who was attending the funeral - was killed. Mashal said it was a suicide bombing.
In the attack's aftermath, a reporter saw body parts and clothes strewn around the mosque, and pools of blood on the floor. The BBC reported that it received a call from a man claiming to be a Taliban member who said the group was responsible for the attack.
Taliban rebels and other militants opposed to the US-backed government have ramped up their insurgency in recent weeks with a series of bombings and other attacks. Suicide bombings, popular with insurgents in Iraq, have been rare in Afghanistan.