Bomb attack on Afghan hospital kills at least 20

PULI ALAM, Afghanistan — A bomb at an Afghan hospital Saturday killed at least 20 people including women and children, days after President Barack Obama said 10,000 US troops would leave the country this year.The suicide car bombing in Logar province, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) south of the capital Kabul, also wounded more than 20 people and officials warned the death toll could rise.An eyewitness described horrific scenes of victims on fire and body parts scattered in all directions after a sports utility vehicle (SUV) blew up in the remote district of Azra, close to the border with Pakistan.The attack was condemned "in the strongest terms" by the United Nations, which said the hospital's maternity ward was badly damaged and many of the victims were women and children.Underlining chaos and confusion at the site, the ministry of public health initially put the death toll at 60 but later corrected its own figures."At least 20 of our countrymen have been martyred and around 25 are wounded," the ministry said. The interior ministry also said 20 people were killed including hospital staff and patients, and 23 other civilians wounded.But provincial health director Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail told AFP the death toll could still be significantly higher as many people came to the scene quickly after the blast and removed the bodies of their relatives.One man who lives near the devastated hospital, Abdul Rahman, told AFP he lost seven relatives in the explosion."Seven members of my family including three women and two children went to that hospital this morning," he said, through tears."I was at home, then I heard a big explosion. When I rushed to the site, I saw many dead and injured people."Many of them were burning, on fire. There were body parts everywhere. My family is dead, I can't find them, they are under the rubble."The Taliban denied they were behind the attack, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying: "We condemn this attack on a hospital... whoever has done this wants to defame the Taliban."UN speci

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