A suicide attack in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province killed a district governor, one of his bodyguards and 10 civilians at a memorial service at a mosque on Friday, government officials said. It was the latest in a string of attacks this week across Afghanistan, where insurgents are seeking to destabilize the government ahead of the withdrawal of most international troops by the end of 2014. The group in Kunduz was attending a ceremony for a tribal elder who had died the day before, the officials said. The district governor, Sheikh Sadruddin, had been in his position since 2002 and been active in the fight against the Taliban. “Officials … were attending prayers in a mosque when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives,” said Enayatullah Khaliq, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor. Twenty people were also wounded in the morning blast, police said. Government officials and aid groups working with government ministries and Afghan security forces have been targeted in reprisal killings this week in provinces previously regarded as relatively stable.
