Several people were killed on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Afghan capital Kabul in an attack on a crowd gathered to commemorate a political leader from the mainly Shiite Hazara minority, officials said. At least nine people were killed in the attack, the third in the city in a fortnight. The bomber came as close to the gathering as he could and detonated his explosives at the checkpoint outside, the spokesman said. One policeman was among the dead. The development comes as the Taliban face growing pressure to take up the Afghan governments recent offer of peace talks to end a more than 16-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which happened near a high-profile gathering to mark the 23rd anniversary of the death of Abdul Ali Mazari -- a prominent former leader of the mainly Shi’ite Hazara ethnic community who was killed by the Taliban in 1995. The event was attended by some of the countrys top politicians, including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and his deputy Mohammad Mohaqiq, a senior Hazara figure. ISIS group typically targets Shi’ites. "The death toll has gone up to nine," deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP, adding 18 others were wounded. Among the dead were two policemen, he said. The rest were civilians. Officials said the attacker was on foot. Afghan officials gave a wide range of figures for the number of casualties: a security source told AFP 13 people were killed and more than 30 wounded. But Kabul police chief Mohammad Daud Amin told Tolo News that five people were killed and 22 others wounded. The spokesman for the Health Ministry, Wahid Majro, said several of the wounded were in critical condition and feared the death toll could rise further. Kazim Ali, who was at the gathering, told AFP the force of the explosion shattered the windows of the mosque. "We were inside the mosque when a loud explosion took place. Security forces didnt allow us to move afterwards," he said. Fridays attack came less than two weeks after President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to join peace talks to end more than 16 years of the latest phase of Afghan war. However, there has been no let up in the violence that has been killing and wounding more than 10,000 civilians a year - and many more combatants - with fighting continuing across large parts of the country and Kabul itself hit repeatedly by attacks. On Thursday night, Taliban fighters attacked a joint army and police outpost in the northern province of Takhar, killing seven soldiers and 10 policemen, according to Khalil Aseer, a provincial police spokesman. The Taliban said in a statement that 29 soldiers and police were killed in the attack, including four commanders. Ghani at an international conference in Kabul last week unveiled a plan to open talks with the Taliban, including eventually recognizing them as a political party. In return, Ghani said the militants should officially recognize the Afghan government and constitution, a perennial sticking point in past attempts at dialogue. "The offer of negotiation is on the table," UN envoy to Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto told a Security Council meeting on Thursday to mark the annual renewal of the UN mission to the war-torn country. The United States has also called on the insurgents to consider the offer of peace talks. Before Ghanis speech, the militants had called for direct talks with the US.