Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Afghanistan suicide bomb in Jalalabad leaves many dead

by Sunita Kureishi and Biodun Iginla, Reuters and BBC News, Kabul

19 minutes ago


At least 33 people have been killed and 100 injured in a suicide bomb attack in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.
The blast happened outside a bank where government staff and military personnel were collecting their salaries, the region's police chief said.
No group has said it carried out the attack, and a spokesman for the Taliban said it was not involved.
The BBC's Shahzheb Jillani in Kabul says it is the largest attack in Jalalabad in many months.
Children are said to be among the victims.
Afghanistan's President, Ashraf Ghani, called it a "cowardly and heinous terrorist act".

One eyewitness, Jaweed Khan, said: "I saw many people, dead bodies and injured people on the ground.
"Ambulances arrived very late, and many people died of their wounds."
Police said another bomb was discovered nearby, and was destroyed in a controlled explosion.
Another blast was also reported outside a shrine in Jalalabad on Saturday morning. There are no reported casualties.

The city has been a repeated target for the Taliban in the last year.
On 10 April, a Taliban assault on a Nato convoy near Jalalabad airport killed three civilians.
After years of Nato intervention, the challenge of fighting extremist groups is now solely in the hands of Afghan forces, but a new report indicates the number of troops and police is falling and creating new security risks.
Only a few thousand Nato troops remain in the country, largely in training roles, after their combat role ended in December.

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