Car Bomb at Afghan Clinic Kills at Least 25

A suicide attacker blew up his explosives-laden SUV outside of a small medical clinic about 25 miles east of Kabul today, killing at least 25 people, Afghan authorities said. The Afghan Health Ministry initially said in a statement that some 60 people were killed and 120 wounded. But at a later news conference, a ministry official said those figures were wrong, and that new information put the toll at between 13 and 25 killed and 50 wounded. A provincial spokesman put the number at 25. The different tolls could not be immediately reconciled.

The bomber drove up to the medical clinic in an SUV, and guards tried to prevent him from entering the center's compound, said Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail, the provincial health director. "The driver didn't stop and he entered the compound and reached the main building of the health center, where the truck detonated," Nayebkhail said. The clinic had recently been expanded to meet the health needs of the far-flung district's population. (More Afghanistan stories.)