A series of suicide attacks have killed dozens of people in Nimroz, a province in southwestern Afghanistan.

According to reports, attacks were staged in at least four different locales in the province, including the capital city of Zaranj, near the Iranian border.

The body count includes at least 35 dead and 80 injured. These figures are likely to rise.

Afghan police were reportedly able to kill three of the suicide bombers before they could detonate their weapons, but it is unclear how many bombers were involved or what their identities were.

Many of the dead were shopping in a bazaar in preparation for the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Nadir Khan Baluch, deputy head of the Provincial Council, told the New York Times: “The reason so many people were killed and injured is because everyone was in the bazaar shopping for Id, and at this time of day the bazaar is crowded. There are no foreign forces here in Zaranj; the security forces are all Afghan.”

Zaranj has been relatively peaceful and prosperous in recent years. The Indian government constructed a highway that links the city to the sea port of Chabahar in Iran.

The New York Times Afghanistan New York Afghanistan