The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Jalalabad

A suicide blast tore through an anti-drugs meeting of officials and villagers in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 15 people, a witness and a NATO force told AFP.

The insurgent Taliban movement said one of its fighters carried out the suicide bombing in the small town of Khogyani in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

In the immediate aftermath of the powerful blast, Afghan officials would not say how many people were killed and who they were. But the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which had troops in the area, said its initial information was that 15 Afghans were dead and 14 wounded. It had earlier said 25 Afghans were hurt.

A man who witnessed the attack told AFP at the main hospital in the city of Jalalabad, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Khogyani, that the meeting was being held in the open in front of the district headquarters.

"Locals were sitting on the ground as the district authorities, district police chief, district governor and others were talking to them, saying they should not grow opium," the shaken man said, refusing to give his name.

"I saw a young boy who was carrying white papers wandering around the crowd, pretending he was applying for something at the district headquarters.