Afghanistan car bomb attack: Death toll rises to 29, 60 injured

Twenty-nine people have been killed and at least sixtywounded after a powerful car bomb struck a bank in Afghanistan's Lashkar Gah city wherecivilian and military government employees were queueing to withdraw their salaries.

"At least 29 people were killed and 60 others wounded in today's bombing," Mullah Dad Tabidar, head of Bost government hospital, told AFP

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest in a series of brazen attacks during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, but it comes as the Taliban ramp up their annual spring offensive. The insurgents control large swathes of Helmand province, of which Lashkar Gah is the capital.

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"Around 12 noon a car bomb exploded at the entrance of New Kabul Bank," Salam Afghan, police spokesman in the city, told AFP.

"It happened at a time when civilians and officials had lined up outside the bank to collect their salaries," the police spokesman added.