A suicide bomber blew himself up in a town in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least 10 people in the second such attack claimed by the Taliban in two days.
The attacker struck at a busy market and bus stop in the town of Gardez, 100km south of Kabul.
"Ten of our civilian countrymen were martyred and 30 others were wounded," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The attacker was on foot, it said.
Most of the 30 wounded who were admitted to the main hospital in Gardez were in a bad condition. Several wounded were rushed to the capital, nearly three hours' drive away.
The attacker's target was unclear, police official Ghulam Dastgir said. Most of the suicide bombings in the country are aimed at Afghan and foreign military forces.
A witness, Sorat Khan, said that a military vehicle of the international forces in Afghanistan passed through the area minutes before the bombing.
"When it had gone, the explosion took place," Khan said.
Three German soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force were killed and two wounded on Saturday when a suicide attacker blew himself up in a busy bazaar in the northern town of Kunduz.
Six Afghans were killed and a dozen wounded.
It was the deadliest incident involving the German deployment to Afghanistan since 2003 when four German soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul.
"These treacherous murders fill us with horror and terror," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement: "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that they will never be able to hamper the progress of Afghanistan with their acts of cowardice."
The Taliban movement claimed responsibility for both suicide bombings.
A man who was chased by ISAF soldiers in Gardez on Saturday, after running away from a bomb-filled car, had also been planning a suicide attack, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said.
Three ISAF soldiers were wounded in the incident when their vehicle rolled over.
The Taliban vowed last week to start a new wave of violence to avenge the killing of its top military commander Mullah Dadullah on May 11.
Military officials have also warned of an increase in suicide bombings by the insurgent group, which uses al-Qaeda-style terror tactics as part of a growing campaign against the government and international troops.
"This is the so-called fighting season -- we expected to see more suicide bombing around the country," ISAF spokesman Major John Thomas said yesterday.
The military forces trying to beat back the relentless insurgency have also intensified their operations in recent weeks.
More than 30 rebel fighters were killed in the southern province of Ghazni early yesterday in a sweep involving foreign forces, provincial police commander Alishah Ahmadzai said.
ISAF announced in a statement that "a significant number of Taliban extremist leaders were successfully targeted and killed in a precision air strike" in the south late on Saturday.
It did not give the location of the strike.
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