At least 13 dead in suicide attack on Afghan election rally

A suicide attack on a political rally in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 13 people on Tuesday, officials said, as the country braces for an escalation in violence ahead of this month's parliamentary election.

The attack is the first suicide assault since campaigning officially began last Friday for the long-delayed ballot, preparations for which have already been marred by dozens of bloody attacks.

More than 40 people were wounded, some of them critically, when the militant blew himself up among supporters of candidate Abdul Nasir Mohmmand in Nangarhar province, provincial governor spokesman Ataullah Khogyani said.

Mohmmand survived the attack, Khogyani confirmed, but he did not say if the candidate had been hurt.

Provincial health director Najibullah Kamawal put the death toll slightly higher at 14.

An AFP reporter saw numerous ambulances delivering bodies and wounded people to a hospital in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.

Sayed Humayun, who had brought his injured cousin to