Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: A powerful Taliban truck bombing on Thursday morning targeted Provincial Hospital of southern Zabul province, in which 20 civilians were killed and another 90 were injured, officials said.
A Taliban suicide bomber, Thursday morning around 6:00am local time detonated his explosives laden truck against the main provincial hospital in Qalat, the capital city of the insecure province.
“In result of the powerful blast most parts of the hospital were destroyed, along with nearly all its ambulances and other equipment,” Gul Islam Seyal, spokesman for Zabul governor said.
At least 20 civilians were martyred, among them four students, several health workers and patients and another 90 people, including 20 students were injured in the attack which also damaged the buildings of several other government office compounds in nearby areas, Seyal said.
Due to the high number of the injured persons, the private hospitals in the city were unable to provide treatment to all patients and most of them were sent to neighboring Kandahar province for treatment.
The ICU, dining room and parking slot of the hospital were completely destroyed.
Taliban claimed the responsibility for the deadly attack and claimed their target was the National Directorate of Security building. But Seyal rejected their claim and said the attack was directed at the provincial hospital and the NDS facility has suffered no major damage, only its boundary wall was collapsed.
President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the “heinous and barbaric terrorist attack” carried by Taliban. He said by conducting such attacks Taliban showed once more they are the “enemy” of the Afghans and their destructive attacks, aimed to kill innocent Afghans and destroy their public institutions.
