Car bombing hits Afghan southern town, killing 2

At least two people were killed and nine others were wounded in a suicide car bombing in Lashkar Gah city, the capital of southern Afghan province of Helmand on Monday, sources said.
The blast occurred in Zanzer Mina locality of the city at around midday. The target of the attack was a police convoy passing by the area, a security source told Xinhua anonymously.
The killed included one police and a civilian while four policemen and five civilians were wounded in the explosion, the source added.
Helmand is notorious for poppy growing and is a known Taliban hotbed.
The injured were shifted to War Victims' Emergency Hospital in the city, 555 km south of national capital of Kabul, the source noted.
No group claimed responsibility. The authorities blame Taliban militants for such attacks.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group launched an annual rebel offensive against Afghan government forces and nearly 50,000 NATO-led troops stationed in the country in mid-May.
The Taliban urged civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants besides warning people not to support the government and foreign troops.
More than 1,560 civilians were killed and nearly 3,290 others wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led attacks in the first six months of 2014, according to official figures released by UN mission in the country.