Suicide bomber kills 12 in attack on Afghan police
Posted on: Tuesday, 7 February 2006, 03:48 CST
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.
Source: REUTERS
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