Car bomb near Afghan stadium kills at least 14

A car bomb killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more who had gathered to watch a wrestling match in southern Afghanistan on Friday, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which went off outside the match venue in Lashkar Gah - capital of the province of Helmand - in front of a crowd that included local lawmakers.

Provincial chief of police Abdul Ghafar Safi said the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber and that the target was civilians. No high ranking officials were present or harmed at the stadium, he added.

The attack, which followed a suicide blast in Kabul on Wednesday that was claimed by Daesh, underlined the continued threat of violence across much of Afghanistan with the approach of spring, when fighting tends to pick up.

Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the driver of the car detonated his bomb after he was prevented from entering the venue. He said at least 14 people had been killed and at least 47 wounded. The casualties included children.

Italian aid group Emergency, which runs a major trauma hospital in the city, said 35 wounded people had been brought in as well as four who were dead on arrival.

The office of Afghan president Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning the “brutal terrorist attack.”

Taliban and Daesh step up attacks

Afghan Taliban and Daesh militants have ramped up attacks across the country in recent weeks even before the official start of the spring fighting season.

Despite calls for the Taliban to sit down with the Afghan government, the group – which has been resurgent since the withdrawal of US-led NATO combat troops at the end of 2014 – appears to have few reasons to negotiate.

In October, the Taliban controlled or influenced nearly half of Afghanistan's districts – double the percentage in 2015, the US government's office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in January.

Over the same period, the watchdog said, the number of districts under Afghan government control or influence fell to its lowest level since December 2015.