12 killed, scores wounded in Afghanistan Taliban car bombing

  Thursday, 18 July 2019

source: abna

Twelve people were killed and more than 80 wounded when Taliban militants detonated two car bombs at a gate outside police headquarters in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Thursday, police and medical officials and the Taliban said.
AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Twelve people were killed and more than 80 wounded when Taliban militants detonated two car bombs at a gate outside police headquarters in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Thursday, police and medical officials and the Taliban said.
After the blasts, militant gunman opened fire from nearby positions and members of the security forces were battling them, said Tadeen Khan, the southern city’s chief of police.
The attackers targeted the police force’s counter-narcotics wing, Khan said.
Eyewitnesses said that following the first explosion, three back-to-back explosions were heard and the gunfight was still going on.
Police cordoned off the area as passers-by fled.
Those killed were both policemen and civilians, said Bahir Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor, giving the death toll.
A doctor on duty in Kandahar provincial hospital said 83 wounded people had been taken to the hospital, most of them civilians.
The Taliban said in a statement their militants had detonated car bombs and clashes were continuing as some militants had entered the police offices.
At least 20 Afghan forces members were killed in a Taliban ambush in Abkamari district in western Badghis province on Wednesday.
The Taliban also killed an Afghan commander on Wednesday in central Afghanistan. Mateen Mujtaba, who headed an army division in Ghazni province, was conducting a security check in Qarabagh district when an Afghan soldier started shooting.