A group of suicide bombers killed up to 20 people in the capital of Afghanistan's southwestern Nimroz province on the border with Iran, officials said on Tuesday.
"Twenty people, most of them civilians, were killed and 48 others wounded," in Zaranj city, provincial governor Abdul Karim Brahawi told AFP, while the deputy police chief said there were 'heavy casualties'.
"There were five suicide attackers," said Brahawi. "Two were gunned down by security forces, but the three others detonated themselves in three different locations including one near a hospital."
Deputy provincial police chief Mujibullah Latifi said there were six attackers, three of whom were killed by police and three others blew themselves up.
"There have been heavy casualties, the majority of them are civilians," he said.
Most of Nimroz, although bordering the strife-torn Helmand province, is usually quiet, particularly the capital Zaranj on the border with Iran.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but similar attacks are usually blamed on Taliban insurgents fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.