Child among dead as Taliban suicide bomber kills seven in Afghanistan

A Taliban suicide bomber killed seven people and wounded dozens of others, mainly children, when he detonated a car filled with explosives at a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan yesterday.

It was the insurgents’ first major attack since US president Donald Trump announced in Washington on Monday that he was committing American troops to the country indefinitely. More fatalities are feared. “A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled car in a parking lot near the main police headquarters in Lashkar Gah,” said Omar Zhwak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province.

Reports showed that those killed included a small girl, two women and four soldiers, Mr Zhwak said. Forty-two people were also wounded, mostly civilians, he said.

The car park was full of people queueing to get into the police headquarters when the explosion happened, Mr Zhwak said.

A nearby mosque, which was being used as a madrasa, was damaged. Children were studying there at the time.

The Taliban had called for a complete withdrawal of foreign forces and, after Mr Trump’s announcement, vowed to make the country a graveyard for US forces.

The militants claimed yesterday’s attack. Afghans have paid a heavy price for the 16-year US-led war. Civilian deaths are at their highest since records began in 2009.

In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, the United Nations said.

The Taliban have been ramping up their campaign against government forces.

Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 per cent last year, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to US watchdog Sigar.

More than 2,500 police and troops were killed between January 1 and May 8 this year.