29 dead after car bomb hits Afghan bank in Helmand province, governor says
KABUL — A car bomb exploded outside a bank Thursday in Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province, killing at least 29 people waiting to collect their monthly salaries, the provincial governor said.
Taliban militants asserted responsibility for the attack, part of rising violence in recent months.
In a message emailed to media, Qari Mohammad Yusuf, a Taliban spokesman, claimed that the attack targeted members of Afghan security forces who had come to the bank to pick up their salaries.
Officials said the bomb-rigged car detonated in the parking lot of the New Kabul Bank in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, where dozens of people, both civilians and security personnel, had gathered.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gunmen-and-car-bomb-blast-afghan-bank-in-restive-helmand-province-20-dead/2017/06/22/c8689fd8-5725-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html?utm_term=.191e50bdf758