A Taliban militant has set off some 1,000 kilograms of explosives outside a government complex in southern Afghanistan, leaving more than 70 people injured.

Women and children were among the casualties of the Monday attack at the gate of the complex in the Zabul Province.

Deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Jilani Farahi said "seventy-three people have been wounded” in the attack on the complex in the provincial capital Qalat.

Provincial police chief Mirwais Noorzai said four of those injured were in critical condition.

The Taliban terrorists, which have been at war with the government for 13 years, have escalated attacks on government and foreign targets.

A blast triggered by a Taliban car bomber ripped through the parking lot of the justice ministry in Kabul on May 19, killing four people and wounding dozens of others.

Also this month ,14 people - mostly foreigners - were killed in a Taliban attack on a Kabul guesthouse.

The United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan has said the surge in attacks has taken a heavy toll on civilians and noted that civilian casualties had jumped 16 percent in the first four months of 2015 over the same period last year.

Fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban has also intensified since the militants launched their so-called annual spring offensive against Afghan forces and foreign embassies on April 24.

Afghanistan faces a security challenge years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed Taliban from power, but many areas in the country are still witnessing increasing violence.

At least 13,500 foreign forces remain in Afghanistan despite the end of the US-led combat mission, which came on December 31, 2014. The forces, mainly from the US, are there for what Washington calls a support mission. NATO says they will focus mainly on counterterrorism operations and training Afghan soldiers and policemen.

HN/KA/HMV