Afghan security forces inspect the site of a powerful car bomb Thursday in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan.
Afghan security forces inspect the site of a powerful car bomb Thursday in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan.
NOOR MOHAMMAD/AFP/Getty Images

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NEW: Taliban claim responsibility for attack

Civilians and police among victims of suicide car bombing

Kabul, Afghanistan CNN  — 

At least 30 people were killed Thursday in a car bomb attack outside a bank in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, officials said.

In a statement to journalists, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the group was behind the attack.

A suicide bomber driving an explosive-packed car targeted the New Kabul Bank branch in Lashkar Gah, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for Helmand province.

Afghan soldiers walk at the scene of clashes between Afghan security forces and Taliban militants in Helmand province on May 13, 2015. Two heavily armed Taliban gunmen stormed a mosque in the provincial capital Lashkargah, killing at least six people in a seige that lasted several hours and ended with their deaths, officials said. AFP PHOTO / Noor Mohammad (Photo credit should read NOOR MOHAMMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
Afghan soldiers walk at the scene of clashes between Afghan security forces and Taliban militants in Helmand province on May 13, 2015. Two heavily armed Taliban gunmen stormed a mosque in the provincial capital Lashkargah, killing at least six people in a seige that lasted several hours and ended with their deaths, officials said. AFP PHOTO / Noor Mohammad (Photo credit should read NOOR MOHAMMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
NOOR MOHAMMAD/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

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“Both civilians and police are among the victims who had gone to the bank to collect their salaries,” said Mohammad Karim Atal, the head of the local provincial council.

About 60 others were injured during the blast and were hospitalized, Zwak said.

Helmand province has been the site of intense conflict between the Taliban and Afghan and NATO security forces. Thousands of civilians and soldiers have died in recent years.

The province borders Pakistan and is one of the world’s largest producers of opium, which the Taliban harvest to finance their war efforts.

Other car bomb attacks have struck Lashkar Gah.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack that killed eight people in February. In January 2016, three people were killed and 30 injured in a car bombing near the governor’s compound.

CNN’s Ralph Ellis contributed to this report.