Suicide bomber kills 12 in attack on Afghan police

By Mirwais Afghan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed
12 people and wounded 14 on Tuesday when he set off explosives
outside the police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of
Kandahar, a government spokesman said.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, claimed
responsibility on behalf of the group, telling Reuters by
telephone from an undisclosed location the bomber came from
Kandahar.

“There are 12 people dead and 14 wounded,” said Interior
Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai.

Seven of the dead were policemen and five were civilians,
he said, adding that some of the wounded were in a critical
condition.

The bomber detonated his explosives during a search as he
tried to enter the police compound on his motorcycle, he said.

A doctor at a hospital in the city said most of the
casualties were policemen.

Also on Tuesday, a bomb hidden on a bicycle exploded in the
town of Spin Boldak, which is near the Pakistani border in
Kandahar province, wounding three civilians, police said.

Dozens of people have been killed in a wave of attacks,
including 14 suicide blasts, across southern and eastern
Afghanistan in recent months.

A Canadian diplomat was among three people killed in a
suicide bomb attack in Kandahar on January 15.

The next day, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into a
crowd in Spin Boldak and detonated explosives, killing 23
people.

The U.S.-backed government blames Taliban and al Qaeda
militants, who are fighting to expel U.S. and other foreign
forces.

The surge in violence comes as NATO prepares to expand its
Afghan peacekeeping force into the volatile south. The
9,000-strong force now operates in the relatively secure north
and west, as well as in the capital, Kabul.

The United States heads a separate international force of
about 21,000, made up mostly of U.S. troops, fighting
insurgents and hunting their leaders in the south and east.

The United States is hoping to cut up to 3,000 troops as
NATO peacekeepers take more responsibilities in the south.