The attack happened as worshippers were leaving the mosque after the main Friday prayers in the Ghazi Abad area of the eastern province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan, said provincial governor Fazullulah Wahidi.
"The target of the attack was the district police chief and the attacker blew himself up at the gate of the mosque," the governor told AFP.
The district police chief, an intelligence officer, two police and two civilians were among the dead, with eight other people wounded, he added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Kunar has been a flashpoint in the Taliban`s 10-year insurgency against the Western-backed government and 140,000 US-led foreign troops.
Spokesman for the militia, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed in a text message to reporters that the district police chief had been the target of the attack and that "six policemen" had been killed.
The Taliban are known frequently to exaggerate and distort their claims in relation to attacks.
The attack came three days after coordinated attacks on Shiite Muslims in the capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif killed at least 59 people in an unprecedented assault on the holy day of Ashura.
Afghan officials fear that Tuesday`s killings could unleash Iraq and Pakistan-style sectarian violence ahead of the scheduled departure of NATO combat troops in 2014.
In Britain, the Guardian newspaper reported Friday that up to 4,000 British troops could leave Afghanistan before the end of 2013 under proposals to be considered by Prime Minister David Cameron next week.
Britain is the second largest contributor of international troops after the United States to the NATO-led ISAF force, with roughly 9,500 deployed.
The Guardian said the accelerated pace of troop withdrawal was one of three options to be mulled by Cameron at a meeting of Britain`s National Security Council on Tuesday.
Under current plans, all British combat troops are due to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
But under the new option, the number of British troops in strife-torn Helmand province would be reduced from 9,000 to 5,000 during 2013, and almost the same number would be pulled out the following year, the Guardian said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
