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Taliban Claim Afghanistan Ambulance Bombing Killing Dozens

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Afghan Public Health Ministry says 40 people have been killed and 140 wounded in a suicide car bombing in the capital Kabul claimed by the Taliban.

Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said the attacker used an ambulance to get through one security checkpoint by telling police he was taking a patient to a nearby hospital. He detonated his explosives at a second check point, Rahimi said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack, which sent thick, dark smoke into the sky from from the site of the explosion near the government's former Interior Ministry building.

Kabul has been the site of numerous bombing attacks claimed by the Islamic State group and the Taliban over the last year.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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