'Suicide Bombing' Kills 20 In Eastern Afghanistan

Casualties as 'suicide bombing' rocks Afghanistan's Nangarhar

Nangarhar governor spokesman says civilians, Afghan security officials and Taliban members were among the casualties.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group ( ISIL , also known as ISIS) have claimed repsonsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 20 people in the eastern Afghan city of Nangarhar.

The group's Amaq news agency said the attack targeted "a gathering of Afghan forces" in Nangarhar but gave no details.

According to the provincial governor's spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, the gathering was attended by Taliban, security forces and civilians.

Speaking from Kabul, Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse said that bombing was a "very devastasting blow" for the "unprecedented gathering of the Taliban and Afghan security forces in Jalalabad" which also wounded at least 16 people.

Men carry an injured man in a hospital after a car bomb near Jalalabad, Afghanistan [Parwiz/Reuters]

Civilians, security forces and the Taliban were among the casualties in Rodat district - 25km from Jalalabad - as people celebrated the second day of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the month of Ramadan.

Extension of government ceasefire
Also on Saturday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the government's extension of a ceasefire with the Taliban, without giving a timeframe.

In a televised address to the nation, Ghani called for the Taliban to also extend the truce, which is due to expire on Sunday after both sides agreed to halt hostilities for Eid.

Ghani also said that in the spirit of Eid and the ceasefire, the attorney general's office had released 46 Taliban prisoners.

The Taliban had announced a ceasefire for the first three days of Eid, which started on Friday, promising not to attack Afghan security forces for the first time since the 2001 US invasion.

That came after Ghani said that security forces would temporarily cease operations against the Taliban for eight days, starting last Tuesday - though he warned that operations against other fighters, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, would continue.

Governors in Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul said both sides had adhered to the ceasefire.

"There seems to be some momentum for peace," Glasse said.
"The government's gamble to issue a unilateral ceasefire paid off with this Taliban ceasefire, and now everyone is going to wait and see what the Taliban is going to do."