Afghan official: Twin bombings rock Kabul, 50 wounded

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two large bombings in Afghanistan’s capital on Tuesday wounded at least 50 people, a health official said.

A suicide bomber targeted an area of Kabul where government and lawmakers’ offices are located, and moments later a car bomb went off nearby, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said, without providing casualty figures.

Mohibullah Zeer, a Health Ministry official, said 50 people wounded in the attack had been brought to hospitals.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the attacks.

Ghulam Faroq Naziri, a lawmaker from the western Herat province, said another MP form the same province, Rahima Jami, was wounded.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber on foot struck in the southern Helmand province, killing at least seven people, said Gen. Agha Noor Kemtoz, the provincial police chief. The target of the attack was a guesthouse used by a provincial intelligence official in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, he said.

Those killed include civilian and military personnel, and six others were wounded in the attack, Kemtoz said. A car full of explosives was found nearby.

No one claimed responsibility for the Helmand attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the Taliban.