60 killed after car bomb attack in Afghanistan

The device was reportedly detonated by a suicide bomber in Logar province, close to the Pakistan border and about 75km south of the capital Kabul .

Aside from the 60 fatalities, which included women and children, another 120 people were wounded in the explosion.

Officials described the attack in the normally safe Azra district as unusual in the decade-long war.

The Ministry of Public Health said in a statement: "This inhumane act is unprecedented in the history of the conflict in our country and targeted a place where wounds are healed and patients receive treatment.

"Sixty of our countrymen - including children, women, youths and men - have been martyred and 120 others including health workers have been injured."

The Taliban has denied responsibility for the attack.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said: "We condemn this attack on a hospital... whoever has done this wants to defame the Taliban."

The huge blast caused the highest death toll in Afghanistan since a July 2008 car bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed more than 60 people.

And the explosion comes days after US President Barack Obama revealed plans to withdraw 33,000 troops from the Middle East country by the end of next summer.

All foreign combat forces are due to pull out of the country by the end of 2014.

There are currently up to 150,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan, including about 99,000 from the US.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as "savage and ignorant" in a statement released by his office.

"Not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security but Afghanistan and the region," he said.

The blast in Logar is the second major attack in Afghanistan in two days - on Friday, 10 people were killed by a bicycle bomb which went off in the northern province of Kunduz.