5 dead in Badghis suicide bombing

QALA-I-NAW (PAN): Three civilians and two Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing in the northwestern province of Badghis, officials said on Wednesday.

The explosion occurred on Tuesday night when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a health facility in Bala Murghab district, provincial police chief, Col. Mohammad Jabar Saleh, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Saleh said two ANA soldiers, who were critically wounded, succumbed to their injuries later, taking the death toll to five, including three civilians.

 “I heard a heavy explosion at 9:30pm. On reaching the scene, I saw some people killed and injured,” a resident of the area, Mohiuddin, said.

Apparently, the target of the assault was Afghan soldiers, but a man and his two sons working at a nearby fuel station were also killed.

Without giving details, he said the soldiers also suffered casualties in the blast.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with their spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi saying three foreign and nine Afghan soldiers, including two commanders, were killed. Nearby houses and vehicles were also damaged.

It was the first suicide attack in the province.

myn/mbg/mud

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