KABUL – A suicide bomber struck outside a government ministry in the Afghancapital on Monday, killing 12 people and wounding 31 days before the startof a holiday ceasefire with the Taliban.

Kabul Police Spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said a suicide bomber on footstruck outside the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry asemployees were leaving work.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh confirmed the toll.

No one immediately claimed the attack, but the Taliban and a militantIslamic State group affiliate regularly strike government targets in thecapital and elsewhere.ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

The Taliban have agreed to a ceasefire coinciding with Eidul Fitr set tobegin later this week. The IS affiliate is not included in the ceasefire.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb struck a microbus in eastern theeastern Ghazni province on Monday, killing six people.

Arif Noori, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, said women andchildren were among those killed in the blast, which also wounded threepeople.

He said the bomb was planted by the Taliban. The insurgents mostly targetsecurity forces and government officials, but their roadside bombs oftenkill civilians.

Elsewhere in Ghazni, at least three local police and 10 Taliban fighterswere killed in clashes, Noori said.

In the northern Kunduz province, the Taliban attacked a joint army andpolice checkpoint, killing at least 15 Afghan security forces, saidMohammad Yusouf Ayubi, head of the provincial council.

In eastern Nangarhar province, a suicide bomber wounded at least 10civilians when he struck near the Education Department in the provincialcapital of Jalalabad, said Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor.

He said three other suicide bombers were shot and killed by security forcesas they tried to enter the building. He said a vehicle filled withexplosives was found near the scene of the attack.

In a separate attack in the same province, a sticky bomb wounded 14civilians in the Chaparhar district, according to hospital spokesmanInamullah Miakhail.

Gen Ghulam Sanayee Stanekzai, provincial police chief in Nangarhar, saidthe bomb went off as people were shopping in a market.

No one claimed either attack.

Both the Taliban and IS are active in eastern Afghanistan, especiallyNangarhar.