Alwaght- At least 18 people have been killed and 10 more wounded in the Afghan capital after a suicide bomb attack hit on Thursday a restaurant where supporters of an influential regional leader were gathered.
Afghanistan-based TOLOnews cited security sources as saying that eight policemen along with 10 civilians were killed outside a restaurant in Khair Khana where a number of high-ranking Jamiat-e-Islami officials had gathered.
It was not clear if Atta Mohammad Noor, governor of the northern province of Balkh and a leader of the mainly ethnic Tajik Jamiat-e-Islami party, was at the meeting at the time of the attack.
ISIS terrorist group via its self-style new agency, Amaq, claimed responsibility for the terror attack.
The explosion was the latest in a wave of violence that has killed and wounded thousands of civilians in Afghanistan this year.
A spokesman for the interior ministry said the bomber approached the restaurant on foot.
The northern-based Jamiat-i-Islami was for years the main opponent of the Taliban, who draw their support largely from the southern-based ethnic Pashtun community.
In June, a suicide bomber attacked a meeting of Jamiat-i-Islami leaders, including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
Abdullah, who is backed by Noor, and other ethnic minority leaders, formed a coalition government with President Ashraf Ghani after a disputed 2014 presidential election.