A major warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in the northern Afghanistan escaped a suicide bomb attack Thursday morning near a mosque in Shiberghan, the provincial capital of Jawzjan province, on the first day of a three day Eid-l-Azha festival.

The bomb went off when Dostum, a competitor of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the elections as well as the dominant warlord in the northern provinces, finished the prayer in the morning and greeted the crowd outside the mosque, a witness told Xinhua on the phone.

At least 21 civilians were injured among whom four in critical condition, when the unidentified attacker, killed in the explosion on the scene, detonated the bomb some 10 to 15 meters away from Dostum, local law enforcement officials said.

Source: Xinhua