A suicide car bomber on Thursday killed 21 civilians in one of Afghanistan's deadliest attacks this year, while a Canadian Nato soldier and 10 Taliban died in other violence.
The interior ministry said a car bomber drove his vehicle into a crowded bazaar in southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban who have been blamed for numerous suicide attacks since their fall from power in 2001. "Twenty-one civilians, including children, were killed and 13 others were injured," ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP.
Nato said one of its convoys was a few hundred metres away when the bomb exploded in Panjwayi district but it was not affected and it was unclear if it was the intended target.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) convoy had been passing through to recover vehicles involved in two earlier roadside bombings that killed a Canadian soldier and wounded four others, spokesman Major Quentin Innes said.
"It was a suicide attack carried out by terrorists," Kandahar government spokesman Daud Ahmadi said. "Its target is not known as there were not any government or Nato present when it took place."
Panjwayi, a known Taliban stronghold, is about 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Kandahar city. The earlier bomb blasts were about 10 kilometres further west. The first struck at about 4:30 am and hit a patrol securing a major east-to-west highway, ISAF said. A Canadian soldier was killed and another wounded. The second blast hit the same area hours later and wounded three more Canadian troops. None suffered life-threatening injuries.
The soldier who died was the fourth from Nato to be killed since the alliance took command of volatile southern Afghanistan this week from a US-led coalition that has been hunting insurgents since toppling the Taliban.
Nearly 8,000 ISAF troops - including British, Canadian, Dutch and US soldiers - took command Monday of six southern provinces. Three British soldiers were killed on Tuesday in neighbouring Helmand province when rebels attacked their convoy. Kandahar is a hotspot for suicide bombings. In the biggest this year, 22 civilians were killed when an attacker blew himself up among a crowd of men leaving a wrestling match in the border town of Spin Boldak in January.
Panjwayi, near where the fugitive leader of the Taliban Mullah Mohammad Omar once lived, has also been the target of major coalition strikes this year that have killed scores of rebels.
Afghan and international security forces are pursuing rebels in the south to establish government authority over the lawless area where Taliban fighters are said to have teamed up with drugs runners. Ten rebels were killed late Wednesday when Nato warplanes helped Afghan security forces raid Taliban hideouts in Helmand's Garmser district, police said. Two policemen were wounded, local police chief Mohammad Rasoul Aka said. Provincial police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhil said 22 Taliban were killed or wounded. The operation was the latest in a series of sweeps in Garmser since rebels overran the district headquarters in July, burning the Afghan flag and hoisting the emblem of what Afghan officials said was a pro-Taliban Pakistan-based Islamic outfit.
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