Conflicts & War

Friday car bomb in Afghanistan attack leaves 24 dead, 110 injured

Kabul, May 1 (EFE).- A car bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan killed 24 people and left another 110 injured, regional officials said Saturday.

Friday’s attack in Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar province, struck shortly before Muslims break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, damaging several buildings, including a hospital.

 “We have recovered 24 dead bodies and we have 110 people injured, all of them civilians,” said Didar Lawang, spokesperson for the provincial government.

Most of the dead were students from the Azra district who had come to the Logar capital Pul-e-Alam for university entrance exams, the spokesperson said.

Among the injured are 11 doctors working at the hospital that suffered extensive damage which forced the healthcare workers to treat patients surrounded by shattered glass.

“The coffins of the martyred people were today sent to their houses in Azra district,” Lawang said, adding that several injured in critical conditions were transferred to Kabul for treatment.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack which came a day before the United States is set to begin the process of withdrawing the nearly 3,500 troops who remain in Afghanistan nearly two decades after the invasion that toppled the Taliban.

Roughly 7,000 troops from other NATO countries will also be leaving Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden said that all of the US military personnel will be out of the country by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington by al-Qaeda militants under the command of Osama bin Laden, then living in Afghanistan.

The administration of Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, signed an agreement with the Taliban that called for a full US withdrawal by May 1, 2021.

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