Suicide attack in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR – Yesterday a suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of US-led troops in the main city in volatile southern Afghanistan, wounding up to three passers-by, police said.The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body as the convoy passed near the governor’s house in the centre of Kandahar city, police department chief Said Ghafar said.

“Three civilians have been wounded, one of them badly,” he told AFP. An AFP correspondent at the scene said human remains and blood were smattered on a coalition Humvee vehicle but it was only lightly damaged.The interior ministry in the capital Kabul confirmed there had been an attack in the city.”The attacker has been killed and one of the civilians has been injured,” ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP.He said it was too early to be sure of the target and whether it had been a suicide attack.The US-led coalition officials did not immediately have information about the blast.The United States leads a force of about 20 000 troops based mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan to hunt down Islamic militants, including those loyal to the extremist Taliban regime removed from power in 2001.The hardliners were toppled in a US-led attack because they refused to surrender Osama bin Laden following the September 11 suicide attacks in the United States that killed more than 3 000 people.The Taliban and their allies have launched an insurgency, and the violence has this year killed more than 1 500 people, many of them militants killed by Afghan and international troops.Coalition soldiers have been the target of several attacks in Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name, from where the Taliban rose to take control of most of Afghanistan by 1996.- Nampa-AFPAn AFP correspondent at the scene said human remains and blood were smattered on a coalition Humvee vehicle but it was only lightly damaged.The interior ministry in the capital Kabul confirmed there had been an attack in the city.”The attacker has been killed and one of the civilians has been injured,” ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP.He said it was too early to be sure of the target and whether it had been a suicide attack.The US-led coalition officials did not immediately have information about the blast.The United States leads a force of about 20 000 troops based mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan to hunt down Islamic militants, including those loyal to the extremist Taliban regime removed from power in 2001.The hardliners were toppled in a US-led attack because they refused to surrender Osama bin Laden following the September 11 suicide attacks in the United States that killed more than 3 000 people.The Taliban and their allies have launched an insurgency, and the violence has this year killed more than 1 500 people, many of them militants killed by Afghan and international troops.Coalition soldiers have been the target of several attacks in Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name, from where the Taliban rose to take control of most of Afghanistan by 1996.- Nampa-AFP