UN mission in Afghanistan condemns suicide bomb attack

KABUL, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Monday condemned the suicide attack against an election-related facility in Kabul.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber attacked a voter registration center set up in a school in western Kabul, killing more than 60, including 27 women and eight children, and injuring more than 120 others, according to latest figures obtained by Xinhua from Kabul police.

Several of the injured are in critical condition.

"The incident is the latest in a spate of attacks that appear to deliberately target election-related facilities which have taken place since last week's commencement of the voter registration process for the parliamentary and district elections scheduled for October 20, 2018," said the statement.

The center also issued identity-cards for Afghans who did not hold Tazkira or National Identity Card to vote for the upcoming polls.

"The UN family in Afghanistan feels a deep sense of revulsion at (Sunday's) outrage," Tadamichi Yamamoto, special UN envoy and head of the UN mission, was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Compounding the callous disregard for the lives of civilians, the killing appears to be part of a wholly unacceptable effort by extremists to deter Afghan citizens from carrying out their constitutional right to take part in elections," he said.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

More than 3,430 civilians were killed and over 7,000 others injured in conflict-related incidents in 2017 in the war-torn country, according to UNAMA figures. Enditem