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Roundup: Suicide car bomb kills bomber, wounds 73 in S. Afghanistan

Xinhua, May 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

More than 70 people with vast majority of civilians had been wounded as a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden truck in Zabul's provincial capital the Qalat city, 340 km south of Kabul on Monday, head of Zabul's Provincial Council, Atta Jan Haqbayan said.

"A total of 73 people including three members of Zabul's Provincial Council, 17 women and six police were injured in the suicide attack," Haqbayan told reporters, adding the attacker was also killed in the blast.

Earlier the police chief of Zabul province, Mirwais Noorzai had confirmed more than 40 people injured in the suicide bombing that rattled Qalat city at around 11:00 a.m. local time.

The building housing Provincial Council and several more public and private buildings around were badly damaged in the blast, the police chief Noorzai confirmed in talks with reporters.

Taliban militants fighting the government to regain power have claimed of responsibility for the bloody suicide bombing.

Qari Yusuf Ahmadi who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit, in an online statement insisted that a suicide bomber named Sabawon Kuchi detonated his explosive-borne truck next to the compound of Zabul Provincial Council Monday morning killing himself and more than two dozen others including some members of provincial council, besides injuring scores more of government servicemen.

Noorzai rejected the claim as baseless saying all the victims are innocent civilians.

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

Civilians usually bear the brunt of war in the conflict-hit Afghanistan as nearly 3,700 civilians including women and children had been killed and more than 6,800 others wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led militancy in 2014, according to a report released by the UN mission in the country in February. Endi