At least 21 people were killed and several others injured in a suicide blast outside a bank in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Thursday, the BBC quoted a regional hospital doctor as saying. However, local police put the death toll at three and the number of injured at 12. The blast killed mostly civilians who had gathered outside the bank to withdraw cash, the Kandahar Police Department said in a statement.
“There was a suicide attack in which three compatriots were killed and 12 others were injured,” he told AFP. “Our compatriots usually gather there to collect their salaries,” he said, adding that “the victims were civilians.” The dead and about 50 injured people were taken to Mirwais Hospital, the largest in the region, a doctor at the hospital told the BBC on condition of anonymity.
The capital of Afghanistan is Kabul, but the supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada lives in the city of Kandahar, in the southern province of the same name, where the Taliban movement was born. Taliban authorities cordoned off the area outside the bank and prevented journalists from entering the site.
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However, an AFP journalist saw unconscious people or dead bodies being loaded into ambulances after the explosion. Firefighters and security personnel cleared the area, where blood, remnants of clothes and shoes were lying on the ground. The hospitals did not respond to requests for information, saying they had been told not to speak to the media.
The number of bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has dropped significantly since the Taliban ended its insurgency after seizing power in August 2021 and toppling the US-backed government. However, a number of armed groups – including the regional Daesh branch – remain a threat. Several explosions have been reported around Afghanistan since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 11, but few have been confirmed by Taliban officials.
