Car bomb outside Afghan clinic kills at least 60

[June 25, 2011]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A sport utility vehicle packed with explosives blew up outside of a clinic in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 60 people and leveling the 10-bed medical center, Afghan authorities said.

The massive blast in the mountainous Azra district of Logar province, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Kabul, also wounded at least 120, the Afghan Health Ministry said.

Dr. Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail, the provincial health director, said the clinic guards tried to prevent the bomber from driving into the compound. "The driver didn't stop and he entered the compound and reached the main building of the health center, where the truck detonated," Nayebkhail said.

The force of the blast caused the building housing the 10-bed clinic to collapse, trapping at least 15 people underneath the rubble. "Right now, local people are helping to dig out bodies or wounded people from the ruined buildings," he said.

Nayebkhail said the clinic had recently been expanded to meet the health needs of the far-flung district's population. An emergency response team of nurses, doctors and other provincial officials was to fly by helicopter to the area to help search for survivors in the rubble of the remote clinic, he said.

Din Mohammad Darwesh, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said 25 people were killed and more than 40 wounded in the blast. It was not possible to immediately reconcile the difference, but differing casualty figures are common immediately following such an attack.

The Taliban denied responsibility for the bombing. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the movement, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that "this attack was not done by our fighters."

Late Friday, another blast -- this one caused by a bicycle rigged with explosives -- ripped through a bazaar in the Khanabad district of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 people, including a police officer. At least 24 people were wounded in the attack, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

Also, NATO said an alliance service member was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan Saturday. NATO did not release any other details about the death.

The death brings to 47 the number of NATO service members killed in June and more than 200 killed this year.

[Associated Press; By RAHIM FAIEZ and SOLOMON MOORE]

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