At least 10 Afghans were injured in a bomb blast in the crowded center of the southern city of Kandahar which police blamed on Taliban militants, police and witnesses said.
The explosion at the Shahidan Chowk roundabout shopping area destroyed five shops and shattered windows in nearby stores and hotels, an Western news agency correspondent at the scene said.
At least 10 people were injured but there were no reports of any fatalities, city police commander Mohammad Hashim told reporters at the scene in the centre of the city which was the former stronghold of the ousted Taliban.
He said all the injured were Afghan civilians. "No foreigners were injured or killed."
Hashim blamed the attack on "the enemies of the government," referring to Taliban militants who continue to wage a bloody campaign in the south and east of Afghanistan two years after their ouster.
Hashim said the bomb had been placed on a bicycle behind a parked car. Both were destroyed in the blast at around 1pm.
Debris from the explosion littered the road, which was splattered with blood. The injured were taken to hospitals and a large number of police were at the scene.
The police chief said it was the third attack in the city this week, following a grenade attack which seriously injured two US soldiers and an attack on a mosque.
The attacks follow a car bombing at the main UN compound in Kandahar on Nov. 11 which injured three Afghans.
An explosion went off Wednesday evening in fields next to the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force and US embassy in Kabul. No one was injured and the cause of the blast is still being investigated.
South and southeast Afghanistan have borne the brunt of a rise in violence blamed on resurgent Taliban forces who have increasingly targeted aid workers as well as US and Afghan troops.
A US-led coalition force of around 12,500 troops is currently hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants and helping with reconstruction work in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, special forces stormed the compound of a renegade Afghan commander suspected in attacks on coalition soldiers, blowing up weapons and detaining suspects, a US military spokesman said yesterday.
Troops raided the compound near Gardez, the capital of Paktia province in the southeast on Friday, Lieutenat Colonel Bryan Hilferty said during a news conference at the U.S. military headquarters at Bagram, north of Kabul.
It was unclear whether shots were fired or if there were any casualties.
The spokesman said US troops found hidden storage compartments containing hundreds of 107mm rockets, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines and several howitzers.
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