At least 20 killed in Afghan blast at cleric’s funeral

Noor Khan, Kandahar

At least 42 people were wounded in the blast blamed on an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

The attack which came on the heels of a major surge in rebel violence in recent months including assassinations, near-daily clashes with rebels and the kidnapping of an Italian aid worker further raised fears that militants were copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

The militants themselves have suffered a heavy price losing about 200 men, according to US and Afghan officials but the drumbeat of attacks has belied US claims it is stabilising the country nearly four years after driving the Taliban from power.

Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai said the suicide bomber's body had been found and he was part of Osama bin Laden's terror network.

"The attacker was a member of al-Qaida. We have found documents on his body that show he was an Arab," Mr Sherzai said.

Kandahar was a stronghold of the hard-line Taliban regime that was ousted from power in late 2001 by US-led forces for harbouring bin Laden.

Hundreds of mourners were crowded inside the Mullah Abdul Fayaz Mosque in Kandahar, the main southern city, when the bomb exploded, leaving blood and body parts littered over a wide area.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Latfullah Mashal said the capital's police commander, General Akram Khakrezwal, was killed along with other police officers attending the funeral. Mr Mashal said it was a suicide bombing.

Kandahar's deputy police chief, General Salim Khan, said the explosion occurred near to where people remove their shoes before praying.

Nazir Ahmadzai, a doctor at Kandahar Hospital, said 20 people were killed and 45 wounded many of them Gen Khakrezwal's bodyguards. The hospital's director, however, said 72 people were wounded, four gravely.

Many local leaders had been expected to attend the funeral of Mullah Abdul Fayaz, the top Muslim leader in the province, whom the mosque is named after.

Mr Fayaz, a supporter of US-backed President Hamid Karzai, was gunned down in Kandahar on Sunday by suspected Taliban gunmen a week after he led a call for people not to support the militant group.

Even before the blast, security was tight. Afterward, more police were deployed around the mosque, the main city hospital and other sites around the city.

In a second attack yesterday, a bomb exploded on a bridge west of Kandahar as a group of Afghan deminers were driving over it, killing two and wounding five others, said Patrick Fruchet, spokesperson for the US Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan.

The seven were working on a project funded by the Japanese government, he said.

Kandahar has been targeted by bombs in the past.

On March 17, a roadside blast killed five people and wounded more than 30. Authorities blamed anti-government rebels for the attack, which took place as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in the capital, Kabul.