Four Afghan children dead in Taliban car bombings

Four children were among seven Afghans killed yesterday by two suicide car bombings in the country’s volatile south, including one against police and soldiers collecting their pay. In Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, one blast struck near a bank where Afghan security personnel were receiving their wages a few days before Eid, the Islamic festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

It killed four people including three children and wounded 21 in a city where Afghans took control of security from British troops last month as foreign forces started withdrawals across the country.

Around the same time, a second suicide car bomb targeting a police checkpoint in the city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace, left three civilians including a child dead.

The Taliban, who frequently target the security forces, claimed responsibility for both.