Suicide bomber kills self in northern Afghanistan: no injuries

A suicide bomber detonated explosives near a major shrine in a northern Afghanistan city Wednesday, killing himself but causing no other injuries, police said. The bomber had explosives wrapped around his body and detonated them in a park beside a large shrine in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province. He was outside the shrine when the explosives went off, according to Sheir Jahn Durani, spokesman for the local police.

The bomber's motive was not immediately clear. Mazar-e-Sharif, in the country's far northern region, has been spared much of the violence that has wracked southern and eastern parts of the country. But a roadside bomb tore through a vehicle carrying NATO-led peacekeepers there late last month, killing two Swedish soldiers. On Oct. 29, gunmen killed a British soldier and wounded five others by firing at their vehicle, reports the AP. I.L.