Scores Killed by Car Bomb in Afghanistan
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A car packed with explosives detonated as it was passing by a crowded market in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktika, killing at least 89 people and wounding dozens more, police said.
"Right now, police are taking all the wounded to hospitals," a local deputy police chief, Nissar Ahmad Abdulrahimzai, told the Reuters.
The attack took place not far from the border with Pakistan's North Waziristan region, where the military has been attacking hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban in the past few weeks, prompting rebels to retreat towards Afghanistan.
Abdulrahimzai said police had been tipped about the car and were chasing it when it exploded.
"The explosion was so big it destroyed many shops. Dozens of people are trapped under the roofs," Mohammad Raza Kharoti, the district governor, told Reuters.
"The number of wounded will rise to more than 100 and the number of those martyred will also increase."
In Kabul, a remote control bomb concealed by a roadside killed two employees of President Hamid Karzai's media office and wounded five others, police said.
The attacks took place as foreign troops are gradually withdrawing from the country.
The United Nations said last week civilian casualties jumped by almost a quarter in the first half of this year as hostilities escalate.
The UN report documenting civilian causalities between January and June states that there were 4,853 civilian casualties, up 24 per cent over the same period in 2013.
