A car bombing killed six people on Saturday in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, an official said.

Omer Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor, told Anadolu Agency the attack occurred in Naad-e-Ali district.

"A suicide attacker was shot dead before he could reach his target [an army unit], but the car bombing martyred two soldiers and four civilians, and nine other people were wounded," he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility for the attack in a tweet.

President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani reiterated his call for peace to the Taliban. “Not every Taliban wants to fight, this war is imposed on them by a minority. If you are Afghans and Muslim, acknowledge peace," he said during an event held in capital Kabul.

Lying south to the Taliban’s birthplace Kandahar, Helmand remains one of the most insecure provinces with militants controlling large swathes of land, despite losing some parts to the Afghan forces recently. </s> A suicide car bomb in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed and injured dozens of people.

The blast in a mainly Shia district in the west of the city struck a bus carrying government employees from the ministry of mines.

The Taliban said they had carried out the attack. </s> Afghan officials: 14 killed, 145 wounded in Taliban suicide car bombing at police station in Kabul earlier in the day

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials: 14 killed, 145 wounded in Taliban suicide car bombing at police station in Kabul earlier in the day. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An official says 12 people have been killed and 40 others wounded in a car bombing outside a sports stadium in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Aminullah Abed, the chief of the province's public health department, said the 12 killed and 40 wounded were received at a hospital in the province's capital, Lashkar Gah, on Friday.

The explosion occurred after celebrations over the Afghan new year were winding down and revelers were on their way home, he added.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> One person was killed and 14 bystanders were wounded after a suicide car bomber struck on Friday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility. The cause of the explosion was a car bomb in the city’s Qabl Bai area, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish. The intended target was not clear, but a statement from the Australian Foreign Ministry said the explosion had occurred near Australian embassy vehicles as they were traveling in the city. It said no one from the embassy had been harmed, Reuters reports. </s> KABUL (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the western part of Kabul on Monday, killing up to 35 people and wounding more than 40, government officials said, in one of the worst attacks in the Afghan capital in recent weeks.

Police cordoned off the area, located near the house of the deputy government Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq in a part of the city where many of the mainly Shi’ite Hazara community live.

Monday’s suicide bombing, which targeted government personnel, continued the unrelenting violence that has killed more than 1,700 civilians in Afghanistan so far this year.

The Taliban, which is battling the Western-backed government and a NATO-led coalition for control of Afghanistan, has launched a wave of attacks around the country in recent days, sparking fighting in more than half a dozen provinces.

“I was in my shop when suddenly I heard a terrible sound and as a result all of my shop windows shattered,” said Ali Ahmed, a resident in the area of Monday’s blast.

Acting Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least 24 people had been killed and 40 wounded but the casualty toll could rise further.

Another senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the incident with the media, said the toll stood at 35 killed. That was in line with a claim on Twitter by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who said 37 “intelligence workers” had been killed.

Mujahid said in a tweet claiming responsibility for the attack the target had been two buses that had been under surveillance for two months.

Government security forces said a small bus owned by the Ministry of Mines had been destroyed in the blast but the National Directorate for Security, the main intelligence agency, said none of its personnel had been hit.

Three civilian vehicles and 15 shops were destroyed or damaged in the blast, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

At least 1,662 civilians had already been killed in Afghanistan in the first half of the year.

Kabul has accounted for at least 20 percent of all civilian casualties this year, including at least 150 people killed in a massive truck bomb attack at the end of May, according to United Nations figures.

The Islamic State group claimed an attack on a mosque in the capital two weeks ago that killed at least four people.

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On Sunday, dozens of Afghan troops were under siege after Taliban fighters overran a district in northern Faryab province, a spokesman for the provincial police said.

There was also fighting in Baghlan, Badakhshan, and Kunduz provinces in Afghanistan’s north, and Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan in the south, according to officials.

The resurgence of violence also coincides with the U.S. administration weighing up its strategic options for Afghanistan, including the possibility of sending more troops to bolster the NATO-led training and advisory mission already helping Afghan forces. </s> Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) At least six people were killed, including two Afghan soldiers, when a car bomb exploded Saturday in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, an Afghan official said.

The explosive-laden vehicle targeted an Afghan National Army base in Nadali District, Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, told CNN. A woman was among the civilians killed, he said.

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No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series to hit the country since the start of the year.

A Taliban attack in Afghanistan's southeastern Ghazni province earlier this month claimed 14 lives , including that of a district governor.

Read More </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan officials: 14 killed, 145 wounded in Taliban suicide car bombing at police station in Kabul earlier in the day.

The Washington Times welcomes your comments on Spot.im, our third-party provider. Please read our The Washington Times welcomes your comments on Spot.im, our third-party provider. Please read our Comment Policy before commenting. </s> KABUL (Reuters) – As many as 13 people, including both Afghan army soldiers and civilians, were killed and 18 wounded by a car bomb in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, officials said.
A car bombing by the Taliban kills 14 and injures over 150 in Kabul, Afghanistan.