A suicide bomb attack in northern Afghanistan has left at least 10 people dead, officials say.
Sources told the BBC the bomber had targeted a meeting of officials in Maymana, capital of Faryab province.
More than 20 people were hurt, a number critically. Most of the foreign forces in Faryab are Norwegians but a spokesman for the country's army told AFP none of its troops were nearby.
Attacks in northern Afghanistan are far less common than in the south and east.
Nato's Isaf force said two service members had been killed in an explosion in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday but did not connect it with the Faryab reports. It said it had not yet announced casualties related to Faryab.
But it announced separately that three of its soldiers had been killed in three attacks that took place on Tuesday.
Strategic partnership
The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says a suicide attacker on a motorbike approached the meeting near the main vegetable market, which was packed with shoppers as well as Afghan and Western security forces.
A former MP, Haji Ahmad Khan, told the BBC: ''There was a big function in Maymana. The suicide attacker got inside the meeting and attacked. There is blood everywhere. There are body parts scattered.''
A senior police official in Maymana added: ''Most of those killed and injured are local shopkeepers."
A spokesman for the regional Afghan command said two women and two children were among the dead. Four policemen are also reported to have been killed.
The Taliban said they carried out the attack.
There are some 130,000 Nato-led troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban-led insurgency, with most due to be withdrawn by the end of 2014.
Norway currently contributes some 400 soldiers and has lost 10 since the Nato-led invasion in 2001.
Nato and the government of President Hamid Karzai are still working on a strategic partnership agreement on Nato involvement after 2014.
The Taliban have continued their campaign of gun and bomb attacks on Nato forces this year, with almost 100 service members killed.
The number of incidents rose after the burning of Korans by US troops at base in February.
Tensions were further inflamed by the killing of 17 Afghan civilians, including nine children on 11 March by US Staff Sgt Robert Bales, 38, in their homes in Kandahar province.
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