By Tahir Qadiry

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Afghans began three days of national mourning on Wednesday for the victims of the country's bloodiest suicide attack that killed dozens of people, many of them children, a day earlier.

There were conflicting accounts of the death toll from Tuesday's raid on a parliamentary delegation that was visiting a sugar factory in the northern town of Baghlan, an area that had until now escaped the worst of the violence racking the country. Hospital sources and officials said dozens of people, including at least five lawmakers including opposition spokesman and ex-commerce minister Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, were killed.

Other victims included schoolchildren who were among a large crowd that had gathered to greet the team, officials said.

The bomber was on foot and blew himself up as the delegates entered the factory, according to a provincial official.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and suspicion fell on ousted Taliban militants.

The government announced three days of national mourning through state media.

The Taliban have stepped up their attacks, including suicide raids, in the past two years as part an insurgency to topple the Afghan government and drive out foreign troops who are stationed in Afghanistan under the command of NATO and the U.S. military.

But a spokesman for the group said the insurgents were not behind it. The Taliban usually distance themselves from attacks that largely kill civilians.

Scores of people were wounded in the attack. A deputy agriculture minister and prominent woman parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai were among those wounded.

Some of the wounded were sent for treatment to the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, as the hospital in Baghlan could not cope up with the number of casualties.

The United States condemned the attack.

"The terrorist attack today in Afghanistan is a despicable act of cowardice and it reminds us who the enemy is -- extremists with evil in their hearts who target innocent Muslim men, women and children," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

Northern Afghanistan has been relatively peaceful and prosperous compared with the south and east, where Taliban suicide attacks are all too common and insurgents are locked in almost daily battles with Afghan and foreign forces.

NATO commanders say the Taliban are far from having a unified organisation and consist of a number of factions operating more or less independently under loose guidelines handed down from a governing council.

Al Qaeda operatives and at least one other rebel organisation are also active in Afghanistan.

The insurgents' strategy is aimed at convincing Afghans that their government and its Western backers are unable to bring security to the country, which has already suffered nearly three decades of almost constant war. (Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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