Blast in Afghan south, no casualties: police

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A blast rocked the
southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday but there were no
casualties or damage, police said.

U.S. forces rapidly sealed off the area of the blast. U.S.
military spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

Police said a roadside bomb went off as an Afghan security
officer was passing in a vehicle. He was unhurt.

Afghanistan has seen 13 bloody suicide blasts since
November, the worst on Monday last week when 23 people were
killed in the town of Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan.

The government says Taliban and al Qaeda militants are
trying to scare off European countries who are mulling sending
in peacekeepers and to unsettle aid donors ahead of an
international conference on Afghanistan in London at the end of
the month.

An apparent suicide attack on a Canadian military convoy in
Kandahar eight days ago killed a Canadian foreign affairs
official and two Afghans.

Monday’s blast was in the same part of the city where a
huge car bomb was safely dismantled last Thursday.

The improvised bomb, consisting of a dozen 122 mm mortar
bombs and other explosives, would have caused significant
damage had it gone off, a spokesman for Canadian forces in the
southern city said.