Three people died and 12 people were injured in a car bomb attack that hit Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan yesterday, officials said.
“Initially, we received one dead body and two of the wounded died later, taking the death toll to three,” said Mohammad Afzal, a doctor at the city’s main hospital.
He added that 12 people had been injured, mostly police.
The city’s police chief, Khan Mohammad, said the explosion was a car bombing in front of a bank — where locals said police went to collect their salaries — and that one of the dead was a police officer.
“This was a car bomb attack, which exploded next to police vehicles in front of Kabul Bank,” Mohammad said.
Kandahar, the biggest city in southern Afghanistan and the birthplace of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is at the heart of a nine-year Taliban insurgency, with some 140,000 US-led international troops in the country.
It has been flooded with international troops in recent months and there is a regular stream of convoys and patrols on the streets. Local commanders say security in the city has been improved as a result.
“Police had come to the bank to get their salaries and they had parked vehicles outside,” local police officer Basir Khan said.
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