A Taliban suicide car bomber targeted a military convoy in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on Wednesday, killing at least seven people, a provincial official said.
The attack comes just days after President Donald Trump announced his new strategy for Afghanistan, which involves maintaining a US military presence in the country and upending a campaign vow to end America's longest war.
According to Omar Zwak, the spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor, Wednesday's explosion in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, also wounded 42 people, mostly civilians.
Initial reports show that those killed included a small girl, two women and four soldiers, Zwak said, expressing fears that the death toll could rise further.
“This is from our initial reports, I am afraid the casualty tolls might change once we get a final report from the attack,” he added.
The bombing took place near the police chief's headquarters. Local TV broadcast footage showing several military Humvees, which the Afghan army also uses, destroyed as a result of the attack.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on his twitter account.
Senior Afghan government officials on Tuesday welcomed Trump's strategy announcement from Monday.
Senior US officials said Trump may send up to 3,900 more troops, with some deployments beginning almost immediately.
Trump also had harsh words for Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of giving extremists a safe haven, while next door in Afghanistan they kill U.S. troops. He said he wanted “immediate” results without saying what actions the United States might take against Pakistan if it ignored his warning.
The United States and Afghanistan have routinely accused Pakistan and particularly its powerful intelligence agency of harboring insurgents and of waging a selective war, attacking those militants Islamabad considers its enemy and allowing those it has been known to use as proxies, either against hostile neighbors India or Afghanistan, to flourish.
Taliban attacks have stepped up all across Afghanistan since the withdrawal of foreign combat forces from the war-torn nation at the end of 2014, and the insurgents have lately been constantly expanding their footprint.
Earlier this month, the Taliban in an “open letter” to Trump, reiterated their calls for the withdrawal of all remaining US troops. The United States has about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan, who support local forces and carry out counter-terrorism operations.A Taliban suicide bomber killed five civilians and wounded dozens of others, mainly children, when he detonated a car filled with explosives at a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday.
It was the insurgents' first major attack since US President Donald Trump announced in Washington late Monday that he was committing American troops to the war-torn country indefinitely.
“A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled car in a parking lot near the main police headquarters in Lashkar Gah,” Omar Zhwak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, told AFP.
“Our initial information shows that five civilians were killed and 25 were wounded, including women and children,” he added.
The car park was full of people queuing to get into the police headquarters when the explosion happened, said Zhwak.
He added that a nearby mosque, which was being used as a madrassa, had been damaged. Children were studying inside the religious school at the time of the blast.
“We have received 38 wounded — mostly schoolchildren — and five dead, including two women and two soldiers,” Mauladad Tabihdad, director of hospitals in Helmand, told AFP.
The attack occurred a little over 24 hours after Trump cleared the way for thousands more US soldiers to be sent to Afghanistan, reversing earlier pledges to pull out.
The Taliban had called for a complete withdrawal of foreign forces and following Trump's announcement vowed to make the war-weary country a “graveyard” for US forces.
The Taliban quickly claimed Wednesday's attack in a text message sent to journalists. “We targeted army tanks, killing dozens,” it read.
Ordinary Afghans have paid a heavy price for the 16-year US-led war.
Civilian deaths are at their worst since records began in 2009. In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.
The attack was also the latest blow to Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces.
“The car bomb targeted a number of army vehicles parked in the parking lot.
We have reports of some casualties to army soldiers,” Salam Afghan, a police spokesman, told AFP.
The resurgent Taliban have been ramping up their campaign against government forces, underscoring rising insecurity in Afghanistan during the summer fighting season when the warmer weather tends to spur an increase in attacks.
Afghan police and troops — beset by a high death toll, desertions, and non-existent “ghost soldiers” on the payroll — have been struggling to beat back the insurgents since US-led Nato troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.
Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to US watchdog SIGAR.
More than 2,500 Afghan police and troops were killed from January 1 to May 8.
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