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.