A suicide bomber has targeted a gathering of Afghanistan's top clerics in Kabul, killing at least seven people and wounding nine, police say.
Shortly before Monday's attack, the clerics had issued a fatwa against suicide bombings and urged peace talks to end the Afghan war.
Ghafor Aziz, police chief of Kabul's 5th District, said the bomber detonated his explosives near the entrance of a compound where the religious body, known as the Afghan Ulema Council, was meeting under the traditional tent of the Loya Jirga, the council of elders.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Initially, four people were reported killed but the police very soon raised the death toll to seven and said that nine people were wounded. It was not immediately clear how many of the clerics were among those killed.
Aziz added that had the attacker penetrated deeper, the casualty numbers could have been significantly higher.
Around 2000 members of the council had gathered for the meeting and the explosion struck as the council was ending and the participants were about to leave, Aziz said.
Shortly before the attack, the clerics had issued an Islamic ruling, or a fatwa, declaring that suicide attacks are "haram" - forbidden under Islamic law.
The council appealed to both Afghan government forces and the Taliban and other militants to halt the fighting and agree on a ceasefire. It also called for peace negotiations between the two sides. It was the first time the council has issued such an appeal.
Less than an hour before the attack happened, Ghofranullah Murad, a member of the council, read out a written statement from the gathering saying that innocent Afghan men, women and children are the true victims of war.
"The ongoing war in Afghanistan is illegal and has no root in Sharia (Islamic) law," the statement said. "It is illegal according to Islamic laws and it does nothing but shed the blood of Muslims."
