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Afghan Bombing Hits Workers Lined Up for Pay, Killing Over 20 Afghan Bombing Kills Dozens of Workers Lined Up for Pay
(about 2 hours later)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A car bombing killed at least 22 people and wounded 50 as they lined up at a bank to collect their pay on Thursday in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, in southern Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials. KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A car bombing killed at least 34 people and wounded 60 others as they lined up at a bank to collect their pay on Thursday in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, in southern Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials.
A suicide attacker drove into a crowd in front of a branch of the New Kabul Bank in the city, detonating a car bomb so forcefully that some victims were blown into the nearby Helmand River, officials said. A suicide attacker drove into a crowd in front of a branch of the New Kabul Bank in the city, detonating a car bomb so potent that some victims were blown into the nearby Helmand River, officials said.
Dr. Mualadad Tobagar, head of the Boost Hospital in Lashkar Gah, said that 29 dead and 60 wounded had been received there, one of two hospitals in the city. Omar Zwak, the spokesman for the Helmand governor, put the toll at 22 dead and 50 injured, but he said those figures were certain to increase as the identification of the remains continued. The governor of Helmand, Hayatullah Hayat, said that civilians and soldiers were among the dead and wounded, including women and children. “Most of the victims were civilians, but some were military, and we are investigating why military men came to a bank in the city, since they should collect their pay from bank branches on their bases,” Mr. Hayat said.
Many victims were hard to identify because the bodies were so badly mutilated, Dr. Tobagar said. Some women and children were among them. Many victims were hard to identify because the bodies were so badly mutilated, said Dr. Mualadad Tobagar, the head of the Boost Hospital, where most of the victims were taken.
Mr. Zwak said the victims included civilians and military officers, schoolteachers and officials, all gathering to collect their pay on the last workday before the end of Ramadan and the beginning of the long Eid al-Fitr holiday. The victims were all gathering to collect their pay on the last workday before the end of Ramadan and the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban insurgents who dominate most of the province have frequently initiated suicide bombings in the capital. A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed in a WhatsApp message to journalists that the insurgents had carried out the attack but that all the victims were soldiers and police officers who had gathered to collect their pay, some of them in civilian clothing. He said civilians were banned from the bank at the time of the attack, but he did not address the reports of women and children being among the victims.