29 dead as car bomb hits bank in S Afghanistan

At least 29 people were killed on Thursday when a powerful car bomb struck a bank in Afghanistan’s Lashkar Gah city as people were queueing to withdraw salaries, the latest bloody attack during the holy month of Ramadan.

Sixty wounded people were rushed to hospital after the bombing at New Kabul Bank which upturned vehicles, left the area littered with charred debris, and sent a plume of smoke into the sky.

No group has claimed responsibility for the brazen attack, but it comes as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide spring offensive despite government calls for a ceasefire during Ramadan.

The bomb tore through a queue of civilians and government employees who had lined up outside the bank to collect their salaries ahead of the Eid holidays marking the end of Ramadan.

“At least 29 people were killed and 60 others wounded in today’s bombing,” Mullah Dad Tabidar, head of Bost government hospital, told AFP as bloodied victims were rushed in on makeshift stretchers.

Tabidar said civilians and policemen were among the fatalities, warning that the toll could rise further.

In a similar attack in February, at least six people were killed when a Taliban bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into Afghan soldiers who had queued outside a bank in Lashkar Gah to collect their salaries.

For years Helmand province, of which Lashkar Gah is the capital, was the centrepiece of the Western military intervention in Afghanistan, but it has recently slipped deeper into a quagmire of instability.

The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency, and have repeatedly threatened to seize Lashkar Gah.

Intensified fighting last year forced thousands of people to flee to Lashkar Gah from neighbouring districts. Since they launched their spring offensive in late April, the Taliban have been mounting lethal assaults on the Afghan army and police outposts in Helmand.

Washington is soon expected to announce an increase in the US military deployment to bolster Afghan forces as they struggle to contain the insurgency. American military commanders in Afghanistan have requested thousands of extra boots on the ground.

Sixty wounded people were rushed to hospital after the bombing at New Kabul Bank which upturned vehicles and sent a plume of smoke into the sky