JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Feb 22, (Agencies): An influential Afghan leader was among 14 people killed in a suicide bomb attack targeting a gathering of tribal elders in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, police said. “There was a suicide bombing today in which 14 people including Haji Zaman Ghamsharik were killed,” Colonel Abdul Ghafour, a police spokesman told AFP. The bomber, on foot and wearing an explosives-packed vest, hit a tribal gathering in Nangarhar province’s Khogyani district, he said.
He said at least another 15 people were wounded in the attack. Ghamsharik was a former jihadi commander during the anti-Soviet resistance of the 1980s and an influential tribal leader in the province, a cross-border trading hub with Pakistan.

Until recent years, the area was a hotspot for Taleban activity, but under the guidance of leaders such as Gamsharik it became one of the more peaceful regions of the often volatile eastern border region.
The attack happened as news broke of a Nato air strike in central Daykundi province where the Afghan government said 27 civilians, including women and a child, were killed when they were mistaken for militants.
Nato, US and Afghan forces are waging a huge assault on a Taleban stronghold in southern Helmand province, now in its second week.

Afghan officials say outnumbered Taleban fighters are mounting a tougher fight than expected in Marjah, as US-led forces converge on a pocket of militants in a western section of the southern Afghan town.
Despite continuing fighting, Marjah’s newly oppointed civilian chief said he planned to fly into the town Monday for the first time since the attack to begin restoring Afghan government control and winning over the population after years of Taleban rule.
With fighter jets, drones and attack helicopters roaring overhead, Marine and Afghan companies advanced Sunday on a 2-square-mile (5.2-square-kilometer) area where more than 40 insurgents were believed holed up.

“They are squeezed,” said Lt Col Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. “It looks like they want to stay and fight but they can always drop their weapons and slip away. That’s the nature of this war.”
US officials signaled their intention to attack Marjah, a major Taleban supply and opium-smuggling center, months ago, apparently in hopes the insurgents would flee and allow the US-led force to take over quickly and restore an Afghan government presence.
Instead, the insurgents rigged Marjah with bombs and booby traps to slow the allied attack, which began Feb. 13. Teams of Taleban gunmen stayed in the town, delivering sometimes intense volleys of gunfire on Marine and Afghan units slogging through the rutted streets and poppy fields.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the US and its allies had expected the Taleban to leave behind thousands of hidden explosives, which they did. But they were surprised to find that so many militants stayed to fight.
“We predicted it would take many days. But our prediction was that the insurgency would not resist that way,” Azimi told The Associated Press in Kabul.
In a statement Sunday, Nato acknowledged that insurgents were putting up a “determined resistance” in various parts of Marjah, although the overall offensive is “on track.”
Marine spokesman Lt Josh Diddams said Sunday that Marines and Afghan troops were continuing to run into “pockets of stiff resistance” though they were making progress. Diddams said no area is completely calm yet although three markets in town — which covers about 80 square miles — are at least partially open.