At least 12 killed, 33 injured in blast at mosque in eastern Afghanistan

An Afghan official said a bombing at a mosque in the eastern Khost province that was being used as a voter registration centre killed 12 people and wounded another 33.

Habib Shah Ansari, the provincial head of public health, provided the first precise toll from the attack, which was earlier confirmed by other officials.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and a local Islamic State affiliate reject democratic elections and have targeted them in the past. ISIS is not known to have a presence in Khost, but has expanded its footprint into other areas in recent years.

Last month, an Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 57 people, including women and children, and wounded 119 outside a voter registration centre in the Afghan capital Kabul in the latest attack on election preparations.

The attack, on April 22, took place in a centre in a heavily Shiite-populated neighbourhood in the west of Kabul, which was also being used by people to register for national identification certificates, which they need in order to sign up to vote.