Kandahar: Suicide bombers killed 24 people in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Monday, further raising fears that militants here are copying the tactics of Iraqi insurgents.
An attacker riding a motorcycle blew himself up as a crowd left a wrestling match in Spin Boldak, killing 20 people and wounding at least 20 others, Kandahar province governor Asadullah Khalid and witnesses said.
Hours earlier three Afghan soldiers and a civilian had died in a suspected suicide car bombing in Kandahar city, the former stronghold of the ousted Islamic regime, the army said.
Another car bomb in Kandahar on Sunday claimed the lives of a senior Canadian diplomat and two Afghans.
The toll from Monday's attacks is believed to be the biggest caused by suicide bombings in a single day since a US-led military offensive toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
The Taliban denied that it had carried out the motorbike attack in Spin Boldak, saying it does not specifically target civilians, but has claimed responsibility for the two suicide bombings in Kandahar city.
"Twenty people were killed and around 20 others were wounded after a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated himself in Spin Boldak bazaar" as people watched the wrestling after the recent Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, Khalid said.
The powerful explosion also engulfed three cars, setting them on fire, he said. A number of police were in the area at the time but it was not known if they were among the casualties.
Doctors at a private hospital just across the border in the Pakistani town of Chaman said around 30 people were injured, 12 of them seriously. Fifteen bodies were also brought over, said doctor Abdul Nasir Achakzai.
Governor Khalid accused Pakistan of failing to crack down on militants along the long, porous border with his war-torn country, echoing a common complaint by Afghan officials.
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