A suicide truck bomb believed to be carried out by the Taliban terrorist group in southern Afghanistan killed two civilians on Tuesday and wounded more than 40 others.

A suicide truck bomb believed to be carried out by the Taliban terrorist group in southern Afghanistan killed two civilians on Tuesday and wounded more than 40 others.

The bomber detonated a lorry loaded with explosives at the gate of the police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, the capital of volatile Helmand province.

"The blast was very powerful. Most of the wounded people are civilians who were hit by broken glass inside their homes," Provincial spokesman Omar Zhwak told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But the Taliban, who launched their annual spring-summer offensive in late April, vowed nationwide attacks.

Afghan troops and police, deployed on multiple fronts and facing record casualties, are struggling to rein in the terrorist operatives even as the government makes repeated efforts to jump-start peace negotiations.