 KABUL - A car bomb exploded in a market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday killing at least eight people and wounding 17, police said.
Provincial police chief Hussain Andiwal said no members of the [foreign] security forces were in the farmers’ market in Girishk district when the bomb went off. “The explosives were inside a car parked in a weekly market where a sizable number of people were buying and selling goods,” Andiwal said. “The target was civilians. There no foreign or Afghan forces in the area.”
Children were also among the victims, he said.
| Brave, brave Lions of Islam™. |
A Taliban spokesman denied responsibility for the attack.
| "Wudn't us. It wuz... ummm... somebody else." |
The Taliban launched about 140 suicide attacks in Afghanistan last year, but routinely deny responsibility for attacks where there are a large number of civilian casualties.
| Figured out it wasn't good public relations, did they ... |
| There are so many other people in the suicide kaboom business it's real easy to shift the blame. |
The Taliban spokesman said militants had killed several Afghan policemen with a remote-controlled roadside bomb in the same district earlier in the day. Helmand police chief Andiwal said two Afghan policemen were killed and two wounded in that attack. |