The governor of Kandahar Province demanded more security yesterday after 12 coordinated explosions in Afghanistan’s largest southern city killed dozens of people in the Taliban heartland.
The attacks around Kandahar city on Saturday night included two car bombs, six suicide attackers on motorbikes and bicycles plus four homemade bombs, Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wesa said. At least 35 people died, including 10 women and children attending a wedding celebration in a hall next to a police station that was targeted.
Kandahar province is considered the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban insurgency and is widely believed to be the next target of NATO and Afghan forces following a major push to take another militant stronghold in next-door Helmand Province.
Among the targets of Saturday night’s explosions were a newly fortified prison and police headquarters. Wesa said at least six police officers were among the dead.
Another roadside bomb yesterday morning targeted a car carrying Pakistani construction workers south of the city in the district of Dand, Wesa said. Four of the Pakistani workers and their Afghan driver were wounded.
Wesa told reporters yesterday he had asked the central government in Kabul for more Afghan troops to be sent to protect the city in the run-up to the expected offensive. He also said that he wants to coordinate with NATO forces to improve security.
The attacks mirrored a 2008 suicide bombing at the Kandahar prison gates that freed hundreds of prisoners, many of them suspected insurgents. No inmates escaped this time — the prison gates were reinforced with cement block.
The prison was the main target, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s half brother said. Ahmed Wali Karzai, a member of the Kandahar provincial council, said two of the explosions occurred near his home, which was not damaged.
Wali Karzai said in a telephone interview that Canadian troops had reinforced the prison with cement block after the 2008 suicide attack.
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