14 killed in bombing at voter registration center in Afghanistan

A man wounded in the bombing is put into an ambulance.

(Image credit: Farid Zahir/AFP/Getty Images)

At least 14 people were killed and 33 wounded when a bomb went off inside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

In October, the country is set to hold its first election in four years, and the mosque was also being used as a voter registration center. Talib Mangal, spokesman for the provincial governor in Khost, told The Associated Press the explosion "happened while people were busy with prayers, meanwhile in [another] part of the mosque people had gathered to get their voter registration cards for the election."

A spokesman for the Taliban denied the group's involvement, although the militant organization and a local affiliate of the Islamic State have both previously targeted election activities. Last month, 60 people were killed when an ISIS suicide bomber attacked a voter registration center in Kabul.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.