Officials reported an explosion outside a dog fight in southern Afghanistan has killed at least twenty people and wounded 26.

The bomb was placed on a motorcycle parked near a dog-fighting pit in Lashkar Gah, capital of restive Helmand province, and was remotely detonated as a crowd gathered to watch the fight, said the deputy provincial police chief.

Two bodies and 14 wounded were admitted to the main provincial hospital in the city, said the head of Helmand’s health directorate, Anayatullah Ghafari.

Health Department director Dr. Inayat Ullah Ghafari says seven children were among the wounded.

Lashkar Gah is the capital of Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold that is the target of a planned joint offensive by U.S. Marines and Afghan forces. No date has been set for the offensive to start.

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