2nd LD Writethru: Car bomb injures over 40 in southern Afghan city

More than 40 people were wounded after a suicide car bomb ripped through Qalat city, capital of southern Afghanistan's Zabul province on Monday, police said.

The attack occurred at around 11:00 a.m. local time Monday when a militant detonated an explosive-laden vehicle near the provincial council office, Mirwas Noorzai, provincial police chief, told Xinhua.

"The attacker was killed and more than 40 people were wounded by the blast. The injured were shifted to hospitals in the city," the police chief said.

Many of the wounded are said to be in critical conditions.

Afghan security forces sealed off the scene, while ambulances and civilian cars evacuated the victims to the hospitals.

Unofficial sources said nearly 70 people, including three provincial council members, sustained injuries by the blast.

Several government office buildings, nearby shops and houses were damaged following the attack in the city, 340 km south of Afghan capital Kabul.

No group has claimed responsibility yet for the attack, but the Taliban insurgent group routinely claims responsibility for such attacks.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since April 24 when the militant group launched its so-called annual spring offensive in different places of the militancy-plagued Afghanistan which had claimed hundreds of lives including militants, security personnel and civilians.

Nearly 3,700 civilians were killed and more than 6,800 others wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led attacks in 2014, according to official figures by the UN mission in the country. Endi