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1st LD Writethru: Blast rocks N. Afghan town, injuring 19

Xinhua, July 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Some 19 people were injured in a bomb attack in Maimana city, capital of northern Afghanistan's province of Faryab on Wednesday, police said.

"I do confirm, a bomb attached to a bicycle went off near a local bank office at around 9:20 a.m. (local time), injuring 19 persons," Sayyed Maqssoud Yaqoubi, provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua.

The wounded people included 17 civilians and two police personnel, the spokesman said, adding the injured were shifted to a hospital where four to five injured remained in critical condition.

The police have launched an investigation into the incident.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since mid April 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.

More than 970 civilians were killed and more than 1,960 others wounded in conflicts and Taliban- led insurgency in the first four months of this year, which showed a 16 percent increase over the same period in 2014, according to figures released by the UN mission in the country. Endi