The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has condemned a suicide bombing Saturday that killed 35 people and wounded more than 100 others.
In a statement, UNAMA said the continuing use of suicide attacks in densely populated areas may amount to a war crime. The statement called for immediate accountability for those responsible.
The police chief of the province of Nangarhar, Fazal Ahmad Shirzad, told reporters that the attack occurred Saturday outside a bank in the eastern city of Jalalabad where government employees receive their paychecks.
"My name is Njibullah, I'm a resident of Jalalabad," said an eyewitness. "I just came in from Kabul, got out of the car when an explosion took place and that was followed by another blast. When I got here I saw many dead and wounded people and I offered help, all I could do for my countrymen."
Taliban insurgents denied responsibility, although they have claimed earlier killings in a wave of attacks coinciding with the sharp drawdown of foreign troops.
"It was an evil act. We strongly condemn it," the Islamist militants' spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters.
For the first time since the hardline Islamist Taliban movement was ousted from power in 2001, Afghan forces are fighting with little support from NATO troops.
NATO, which at its peak had 130,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, has only a few thousand left, involved mainly in training and special operations.
Police said a third blast that shook Jalalabad was a controlled detonation after experts discovered another bomb close to the scene of the first explosion.
Some material for this report came from Reuters.
