PICS: Taliban suicide bomber kills 7 Afghan policemen

Published Aug 23, 2017

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Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan - A suicide

bomber targeting Afghan policemen and soldiers collecting their

pay killed at least seven people and wounded more than 40 on

Wednesday, officials said.

The suicide attacker with a car bomb struck in Lashkar Gah,

capital of the southern province of Helmand, provincial police

chief Abdul Ghafar Safai said.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for Helmand's governor, put the toll at

seven dead. The Taliban, seeking to restore Islamic rule after

their 2001 ouster, claimed responsibility.

Two women, two soldiers and a child were killed in the

blast, a doctor at a nearby hospital told Reuters.

Militants had previously attacked security forces gathered

to collect their pay at a bank in Lashkar Gah in June.

That prompted officials to move a bank branch into the

city's police headquarters to improve security.

"In the past, the slave enemy received their pay from banks

but after several attacks they began taking their pay inside the

headquarters that we have now attacked," local Taliban spokesman

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told Reuters.

He said the attack killed 39 soldiers and police, including

senior commanders, a claim rejected by officials. 

Reuters

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