Suicide car bomb outside Afghan bank kills at least 29
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomb exploded Thursday at a bank in Afghanistan’s Helmand province as Afghan troops and government workers waited to collect their pay ahead of a major Muslim holiday, killing at least 29 people, officials said.
Most of the casualties in the explosion near the bank in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah were civilians, said provincial Gov. Hayatullah Hayat. At least 60 people were wounded, he said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack at the Kabul Bank in the southern province, which has been the centre of bitter battles between the insurgents and security forces, aided by NATO troops.
The militants, believed to control nearly 80 per cent of the province’s countryside, increasingly have been making a push into Lashkar Gah to try take the city.