A suicide car bomber blew up a small clinic in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, causing the building to collapse as women and children waited in line. At least 35 people were killed in one of the deadliest attacks against civilians this year.
Guards saw a sports utility vehicle charging toward the Akbarkhail Public Medical Centre, a compound that provides health care for the mountainous area in the Azra district of Logar province. But before anyone could react, the SUV smashed through a wall and exploded, local officials said.
The Taliban denied it was behind the bombing. Violence has been on the rise since the Taliban launched its spring offensive and promised retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden.
"This attack was not done by our fighters," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Survivors of the blast and others who heard the explosion dug through the rubble with shovels and bare hands. At least 35 dead bodies were pulled from the debris, and 53 other people were wounded, provincial public health director Dr Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail said.
The victims, mostly women and children, included patients, visitors, and medical staffers.
"They were offering important services for the people. We had very good services and lots of patients. There were only 10 beds but lots of other services in that centre. It's why the casualties were so high," he said.
Nayebkhail said an Afghan army helicopter was dispatched to the area to deliver medical supplies and to ferry survivors to other hospitals. He said the clinic had recently been expanded to meet the health needs of the district's growing population.
Saturday's attack was the deadliest since February, when three men shot to death 38 people at a Kabul Bank branch in Jalalabad. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the victims deserved their fates because some worked for the western-backed Afghan government.
The Taliban also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in February in the northern province of Kunduz, which killed 31 people as they waited for government identification cards.
A recent UN report found that May was the deadliest month for civilians since it records began 2007, and it said insurgents were to blame for 82% of the 368 deaths recorded.
On 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, and wounding 24, according to an interior ministry statement.
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