An overturned truck rigged with massive explosives went off south of Kabul, killing at least 25 Afghans, including 4 police, an official said

The truck, loaded with firewood and apparently deliberately overturned overnight in Mohammmad Agha district of Logar, about 40 km south of the Afghan capital, blew up as policemen were trying to remove it, a spokesman for Afghan Ministry of Interior said.

MoI spokesman Zeramay Bashari added that most of the victims of the blast, which occurred Thursday morning at around 7:30 am, were schoolchildren and ordinary villagers.

The powerful blast destroyed a number of shops in a district bazaar, and dozens of civilian vehicles nearby the area were also damaged, Bashari further said.

It was apparently a remote-control bomb that went off immediately after the police unit neared the truck.

Four others, including three kids and a middle-aged local, were wounded in the incident today.

Quqnoos’s Tamim Hamid, who is at the blast scene, now says the security forces have cordoned off the area and blocked the highway.

“People have taken the bodies to a garden where more than 20 bodies are placed on beds to show the brutality of the attack,” our correspondent added.

The dead toll is expected to rise, as the health status of the wounded students is determined to be critical.

According to a witness, the driver of the truck left the truck and walked away seeking shelter after it was overturned in the bazaar last night.

The powerful blast destroyed a police vehicle and a few pieces of the truck’s wreckage can be seen around the scene, Hamid further described.

A local resident said that a convoy of US forces also checked the overturned truck last night but it did not explode.

The bomb missed top Afghan and foreign officials who are attending a copper mine extraction ceremony in the province today.

Dozens of mobile checkpoints were established on Kabul-Logar highway immediately following the deadly blast, Quqnoos’ Hamid said.

No groups, including Taliban militants who vowed to intensify their attacks against Afghan and international forces, have quickly claimed responsibility for the incident.

The Mohammad Agha district of Logar is just outside Kabul province in the south and has seen relatively fewer militant attacks than other locations.

The Taliban-led insurgency has reached a record level over the past two months in Afghanistan as the country’s presidential and provincial council elections approach.

US President Barack Obama is sending an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan to overcome the growing Taliban-led insurgency ahead of what is expected to be a bloody summer of fighting.

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