Suicide bomber kills 13 in attack on Afghan police
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-07 19:33

A suicide bomber killed 13 people and wounded 13 on Tuesday when he set off explosives outside the police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a government spokesman said.

A blast occurred outside the police headquarters in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday, causing several casualties, a resident of the southern city said. [Reuters]

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.

"Thirteen people were killed and 13 wounded. Seven of the dead are police," an Interior Ministry official said. Some of the wounded were in a critical condition, officials said.

The bomber detonated his explosives during a search as he tried to enter the police compound on his motorcycle, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai.

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 the attacks on 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.