In one of the largest attacks on civilians in Afghanistan this year, a suicide car bomber blew himself up next to a hospital in central Logar province on Saturday, killing 35 and injuring dozens other, dpa cited officials as saying. The explosion in Azra district took place near a public hospital, said Din Mohammad Darwish, the spokesman for the provincial governor. The hospital was destroyed. Many of the victims were buried under the building's rubble, Darwish said. "The final report that we got from our delegation who went to the blast site said 35 people were killed and 23 others were wounded." Meanwhile, an Afghan Interior Ministry official said the number of dead stands at 20. "According to our reports, 20 people were killed," Sediq Sidiqi, Interior Ministry spokesman said. "The reason we have low casualty figure is because a lot of people were injured and we are still trying to verify the number of people that were killed. "The terrorists have attacked innocent Afghan civilians and, sadly, this is one of the largest attacks in recent weeks," Sediqi said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a statement condemned the suicide bombing and called it the work of the "barbaric and ignorant enemies of Afghanistan." In his statement, Karzai said that dozens of people had died and more that 40 people had been wounded in the incident. Most of the dead were women and children, he said. The explosion's force was focused on a wing of the hospital used to treat children. The Taliban denied involvement in the bombing.
