(AFP) – Feb 17, 2008

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) — A suicide blast tore through a crowd watching a dog fight in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Sunday, killing 80 people, officials said, in the deadliest attack since the 2001 fall of the Taliban.

Officials blamed the extremist movement for the explosion, which reverberated across the city, but the group did not immediately claim responsibility.

Bodies and bloodied limbs lay among boots, Afghan caps, turbans, shawls and mobile phones -- some of them ringing -- after the explosion in an open area on the outskirts of the city, an AFP reporter said.

The blast ripped up several police vans parked at the site, where some men and boys were crowded around a fighting arena while others sat nearby having a picnic. At least one large fighting dog was also killed in the blast.

"This suicide attack was the work of Taliban, the enemies of Afghanistan," provincial governor Asadullah Khalid told reporters, announcing that 80 people had been killed.

The interior ministry put the death toll even higher, saying more than 80 had been killed and 50 others seriously wounded.

"A number of wounded are in bad condition and it is possible the number of casualties will rise," the ministry said in a statement.

The number of wounded was not immediately clear. One Kandahar hospital official told AFP that around 90 people had been admitted to the main civilian and military hospitals in the city for treatment.

More than 500 people had gathered on Sunday for the dog-fighting competition, said Abdul Karim, a fan of the popular winter pastime which the 1996-2001 Taliban government banned as "un-Islamic".

"Fighting had just started between two dogs. Suddenly I heard a huge explosion next to a police vehicle. Then I saw lots of people dead and wounded," he told AFP.

Witnesses said the attack bore the hallmarks of previous suicide bombings carried out by Taliban insurgents.

But a spokesman for the group, Yousuf Ahmadi, said he could not yet comment on the blast.

Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai and head of the Kandahar provincial council, told AFP he had no doubt the attack had been carried out by the extremist movement.

"Who else would carry out suicide bombings? Obviously the Taliban are the ones carrying out suicide attacks," he said. The bomber appeared to have been on foot and mingled with the crowd, he said.

The attack was the deadliest in Afghanistan since the fall of the extremist regime. A suicide bombing in northern Baghlan province in November last year killed 79 people -- most of them school children.

The Taliban did not admit responsibility for that blast but an investigation led by the interior ministry concluded it was the work of the insurgents.

Just over a month ago, the rebels stormed the most luxurious hotel in Afghanistan, the Kabul Serena, attacking with suicide bombs, grenades and gunfire. Eight people were killed, including three foreigners.

Restaurants and offices in the capital have since then stepped up security in anticipation of a bloody year. The past year was the deadliest of the insurgency, with about 140 suicide blasts across the country.

More than 6,000 people were killed, most of them rebels, but nearly 220 international soldiers here to help the Afghan government establish control of the country died in the violence.

NATO-led and US military forces deployed here have been calling for reinforcements ahead of an expected surge in fighting as the weather turns warmer in coming weeks.

The Taliban rose from Kandahar province in the early 1990s and took control of Kabul by 1996.

They were removed in a US-led invasion in late 2001, when they did not surrender their Al-Qaeda allies after the September 11 attacks that year, which killed about 3,000 people and for which Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.

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