Third attack in Afghanistan's Kandahar, one dead
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — A car bomb rocked Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar Tuesday, killing one person and wounding several more in the third such attack in the province in as many days, officials said.
The interior ministry in Kabul said the bombing was carried out by a suicide attacker -- as were blasts on Sunday and Monday -- but this was not confirmed by police on the ground.
"There was a suicide bombing in a taxi. One civilian has been killed and another was injured," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.
"I think the target was a police vehicle but it did not reach them," he said.
The attack in a busy area in the heart of the city was similar to scores carried out by the extremist religious Taliban movement but the group did not immediately claim responsibility.
A police officer at the site, who gave his name as Ahmad Jan, confirmed one person was killed and said four others were hurt. He said it appeared the car had been filled with explosives, parked and remotely detonated.
"I was sleeping at home when I heard a big bang. When I came outside, I saw three people laying on the ground," a witness said. A house and a shop were damaged in the attack.
Kandahar province has in the past two days suffered two of the worst attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban were removed from government in late 2001 and started an insurgency a few months later.
Sunday's suicide attack was the deadliest in the country's history: a bomber killed more than 100 people at a crowded dog-fighting match outside Kandahar city.
Authorities said the blast was aimed at an anti-Taliban commander who was killed with about 35 of his men, according to an aide. The Taliban however denied responsibility.
The following day, another suicide attack killed 37 civilians in the town of Spin Boldak on the Pakistan border. The Taliban admitted involvement in that bombing.
The attacks showed the desperation of the "enemies of Afghanistan," President Hamid Karzai's office said Tuesday, warning more may come.
"It shows the weakness of the enemies of Afghanistan that they resort to inhuman, purely terroristic measures to show their real face," his chief spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, told reporters.
"Whether they claim responsibility or not, they are held responsible by the people and the government of Afghanistan."
Karzai met last week with international and Afghan military leaders to discuss measures to boost security this year, the official said.
"We will maybe have this heartbreak in the future -- it shows that the enemies of Afghanistan are determined," he added.
The Taliban were toppled in a US-led invasion weeks after the 9/11 attacks blamed on the Al-Qaeda network, which then had training camps in Afghanistan.
Their insurgency was its deadliest last year, with around 6,000 people killed. The violence is expected to be just as intense this year.
The Afghan security forces are helped by nearly 60,000 international troops in their efforts to quell the unrest and establish the authority of the government, which critics say barely extends out of Kabul.
An ongoing operation in southern Uruzgan province resulted in the killing of two "significant Taliban commanders" and 13 of their followers, the interior ministry said Tuesday. It did not say exactly when the men were killed.
