Blast at Afghan market kills 89
At least 89 people have been killed in a car bomb explosion at a busy market in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, the defence ministry says.
Officials say the attacker drove a 4x4 vehicle into the market in Orgun district and detonated the explosives.
The market was crowded, full of people doing their shopping at the time of the attack.
The eastern province of Paktika shares a border with Pakistan's restive and volatile tribal areas.
There have been no claims yet for Tuesday's attack.
Orgun is one of Paktika's safest areas, though members of the Haqqani militant network are thought to have a presence there.
A spokesman for Afghanistan's defence ministry told the BBC that most of the 89 bodies recovered from the rubble were women and children.
"ANA [Afghan National Army] soldiers are continuing their work of clearing rubbles to look for possible survivors and victims," Gen Zahir Azimi said.
Some 42 injured people have been taken to hospital, he added.
RAMADAN SHOPPING
The district governor of Orgun District, Mohammad Raza Kharoti, earlier told the BBC a suicide attacker detonated his explosives whilst he was driving a car into the market.
He said most of those killed were shopkeepers and people doing their Ramadan shopping.
Eyewitnesses say police and security forces pursued the attacker before he entered the market.
One doctor at Orgun hospital, said it had become overcrowded with casualties. "We have got children, men and women injured and dead," he said.
The attack occurred hours after two men working for outgoing President Hamid Karzai were killed by a roadside bomb in Kabul.
The Taliban said it had carried out the attack, which targeted a vehicle carrying employees of the presidential palace to work.
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