MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Oct 26: A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people in a mosque in Afghanistan’s relatively peaceful north on Friday as worshippers gathered for Eidul Azha prayers, police officials said.

The attack in Maimana, capital of Faryab province, also wounded 40, regional police chief General Abdul Khaliq Aqsai said, pinning the blame on the Taliban.

A Taliban spokesman said they were investigating to find out who was responsible.

“The suicide bomber detonated explosives when our countrymen were congratulating each other on the Eid holiday,” said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, spokesman for the police in the Afghan north, adding that almost half of the dead were police personnel.

He said Gen Aqsai appeared to be the target. “As soon as the police chief got in his vehicle, the bomber detonated his explosives,” Mr Ahmadzai said

About 20 bodies, some in police uniform, lay in front of the mosque’s gates as smoke billowed above.

The attack, at around 9am local time on the first day of Eid, came just before President Hamid Karzai repeated his call for the Taliban to join the government.

“If you (Taliban) want to come to the government, you are welcome. You have rights as an Afghan and as a Muslim,” he said in a speech marking Eid in Kabul.

Mr Karzai condemned the mosque attack in a statement.

Violence is intensifying across the country 11 years into the Nato-led war, sparking concerns over how the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces, often the target of the Taliban, will manage once most foreign troops leave.

The Taliban, in a statement released to media on Friday, said two Afghan soldiers were behind the attack in western Farah province on Thursday that killed one Italian soldier.

One of them later joined the Taliban, the statement said, along with the policeman who killed two US soldiers in southern Uruzgan province on Thursday.—Reuters