Suicide blast in Afghanistan kills 3 civilians

Published Saturday, June 3, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide car bomber apparently targeting a Canadian military convoy detonated a vehicle packed with explosives yesterday in southern Afghanistan, killing himself and three civilians, police said.

The attack, 15 miles north of the city of Kandahar, killed the bomber and three nearby civilians, said Zmarai Khan, a district police chief.

Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, said a convoy of Canadian military vehicles had passed near the suicide car bomber before the explosion and that those vehicles were the likely target.

A coalition military spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment.

In other violence, suspected Taliban militants searched out and killed two government loyalists living in the same southeastern Afghanistan village, officials said yesterday.

The militants targeted a highway policeman and a man close to local administrators overnight in the Ghazni province town of Zabet, killing them both, said Gen. Ali Ahmad, regional official. One man was slain inside his home, he said.

A surge of violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern provinces close to the border with Pakistan, has killed more than 400 people since May 17, mostly militants.