Suicide bomb in shopping area kills nine

Eight civilians and a Nato soldier were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan.

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed van into a Nato military patrol on a busy commercial street, firing deadly shrapnel at nearby storeowners and shoppers.

The blast in Kandahar yesterday also wounded another Nato soldier and eight civilians. A dozen shops were wrecked, with vegetables spilling on to a bloodstained Khojuk Baba Road.

The bomber struck the seventh vehicle of a Nato convoy composed of mainly US troops, a Nato official said. The road is a main thoroughfare used to reach outlying villages. Most of those killed and wounded were shopkeepers.

Naqibullah Khan, an angry grocery shop owner near the blast site, said: “These innocent people sitting in the shops or passing by on a Ramadan day have been killed and wounded.

“I do not know what type of jihad (holy war) this is. Why do they (Taliban) want to kill their Muslim brothers?”

The attack, one of many to hit the area of Kandahar this year, underlined the challenges facing Nato, and raised further doubts about its ability to secure what was the seat of the Taliban regime before its ouster in late 2001.

The military alliance says its clashes with insurgents have decreased in recent weeks but militants are increasingly resorting to roadside and suicide attacks in their bid to weaken the government and hit foreign troops.

According to Nato figures, there have been at least 78 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year – a nearly four fold increase from the whole of 2005 - which have killed 142 Afghan civilians, 40 Afghan security personnel and 13 international troops.

A Nato statement said. “This indiscriminate attack further demonstrates the insurgents’ total disregard for the safety of the local population of Kandahar city,”

One of the wounded civilians, Karim Khan, lay on a hospital bed, his body peppered with shrapnel.

He recalled how the blast sent him flying from his bicycle and into the air as he traveled to a butcher’s shop to buy some meat.

“I was unconscious, and when I opened my eyes I was in the hospital,” the 25-year-old said. “My mother will be worried sick when she knows I am wounded.”

Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, contacted an Associated Press reporter in Kandahar to claim the militia’s responsibility for the blast.