Nine peoplewere killed and 21 other were injured when a suicide bomber in a four-wheel-drive vehicle blew up his cache of explosives in Herat province in western Afghanistan on Tuesday morning.

The attacker struck as people were gathered outside a district headquarters building, waiting to go inside to see government officials about various business matters, chief of the province's Guzara district Nasar Ahmad Popul said.

"When a suicide bomber tried to enter the district headquarters, he was stopped by the police but then he detonated his explosives right at the gate," said Popul, who was inside the building at the time of the blast. "The explosion was so strong there are casualties among police and civilians." Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, said nine people were killed three Afghan police and six civilians. 

Another 21 people were wounded, most of them civilians, he said. Herat province as well as most of western Afghanistan is relatively calm as insurgents have concentrated their attacks in the south and east. The attack occurred between Herat city, the provincial capital, and the main airport in the area, which is located in Guzara district. 
 

Source: BNA