A suspected suicide bomber killed as many as 14 people in Afghanistan today the first day of Islam’s holy Month of Ramadan.

In eastern Khost province, a Taliban attacker detonated a car bomb near a football field that is close to a military base, officials said.

At a local hospital, doctors received at least 14 dead bodies and eight wounded people, said Gul Mohammad in Mangal, head of the public health department in Khost.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was aimed at members of the Afghan security forces. Taliban forces have increased their attacks in the weeks before Ramadan, with a string of strikes in Kandahar, Paktia, and Helmand, among other provinces.

The Western-backed Afghan government is battling both Taliban and Islamic State militants around the country.