Taliban Attacks Kill At Least 25 In Kandahar

Today's bombing bears a resemblance to the explosion on 4 October 2005, pictured, when three people were also killed in Spin Boldak by suspected Talibani fighters (AFP) 16 January 2006 -- Two attacks in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province claimed the lives of at least 25 people today.

Both strikes were claimed by the Taliban. Kandahar provincial Governor Asadullah Khalid said a bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body near a crowd of about 100 people watching a wrestling match at a fair in Spin Boldak, near Pakistan. Twenty people were killed and several injured.

Hours earlier, a suicide bomber hurled himself in front of an Afghan army vehicle in the provincial capital of Kandahar, killing three soldiers and two civilians, and wounding 16 others.

The Pakistan-based news agency Afghan Islamic Press quoted a Taliban spokesman claiming responsibility for the blast, which, however, he said was caused by a remote-control bomb.

It was the third bombing in that southern province in the past two days, and the bloodiest in a series of suicide attacks in the past four months.

(compiled by news agencies and RFE/RL's Afghan Service)