Kabul: At least eight people were killed and 18 injured Monday morning when a motorcycle bomb exploded in a crowded market in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province, local authorities said.
"Our initial information is eight people were martyred, and 18 others were wounded, all the victims are civilians," the Badakhshan provincial governor's spokesman Naweed Froutan said, adding that the death toll is set to rise.
The district governor of Keshim, where the attack took place, gave a higher toll of at least ten killed and 30 wounded.
"It was a motorcycle bomb explosion inside a main market in Keshim district of Badakhshan province," Abdul Salam Paiman told AFP, adding that some of the wounded were in critical condition and all had been taken to hospital.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast in the remote, mountainous province.
It was the second major attack to shake Afghanistan Monday. The Taliban claimed responsiblity for an earlier suicide blast in the capital Kabul that killed at least 14 Nepali security guards.
The attacks come just days after Washington expanded the US military's authority to carry out airstrikes on the insurgents.
