A suicide bomber in attacked a mosque in Afghanistan on Friday, just as worshipers were meeting to mark the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday. Authorities say that a local police chief visiting the mosque in the town of Maymana, in the remote Faryab province, may have been the target of the attacker, as nearly half of those killed were fellow police officers. (The chief survived.) More than 50 other people were wounded and the death toll could rise higher. The BBC reports that the bomber himself was wearing a police uniform, which allowed him to get close the building without being searched.

The Taliban did not admit blame for the bombing, but did take credit for the latest "green on blue" attacks that killed three Western soldiers on Thursday. An Italian solider was killed by an Afghan solider in Farah province, while two U.S. soldiers were shot by a local policeman in Uruzgan province. The policeman later joined up with the Taliban. That brings the death toll of NATO soldiers killed by "insider" attacks in 2012 to 54.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dbennett at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Dashiell Bennett