Seven killed in bomb at Afghan market
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Seven civilians died Tuesday when a motorcycle bomb ripped through a market in southern Afghanistan, hours after the killing of a young woman working for the government in Kandahar.
The attack happened at a market in Uruzgan province at around 6:30 pm (1400 GMT) as local people were shopping in preparation for breaking their fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
It is the latest incident to underline high levels of instability in southern Afghanistan as international combat troops start pulling out, a process due to be completed by the end of 2014.
Khan Aqa Myahkhel, health director for Uruzgan, said: "In this incident, eight people were brought to the hospital. We got information that seven civilians are dead."
Details of the blast, which happened in Dihrawud district, close to the border with Helmand province, were also confirmed by the director of the provincial council, Amanullah Hotaki.
The Taliban were not immediately contactable for comment on whether they were behind the latest blast.
Southern Afghanistan is seen as the heartland of the 10-year insurgency and one of the most dangerous parts of the country. It has long been the focus of the international troop effort against the Taliban.
Civilians are the biggest casualties of the conflict. Last year was the bloodiest yet in the war, according to the United Nations, which also said 1,462 died in the first half of 2011, up 15 percent on the same period in 2010.
Government workers are also frequently targeted by the Taliban.
Earlier Tuesday, 18-year-old government employee Rabia Sadat, who worked on rural development issues, was shot dead as she left home in the southern city of Kandahar to go to work.
She had been assigned to a Western-funded project which aims to boost the quality of life in Afghanistan's deprived villages by improving irrigation and the provision of drinking water.
Kandahar, which lies just south of Uruzgan, is the largest city in southern Afghanistan and the birthplace of the Taliban.
In recent weeks, the city's mayor and Karzai's powerful brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, were both assassinated in Kandahar.
Officials blamed Sadat's killing on "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase often used by officials to refer to insurgents, but the Taliban did not claim the attack.
Before the 2001 US-led invasion ousted them from power, the Taliban banned women from attending school or working outside the home, following their interpretation of Islamic law.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Tuesday, several thousand people including lawmakers took to the streets of Kabul to protest against the latest twist in a long-running row over vote fraud in last year's parliamentary elections.
President Hamid Karzai last week ordered the Independent Election Commission to resolve the long-standing dispute and it is expected to announce within days how many members of parliament will be kicked out.
The protestors were fiercely opposed to any change in the results as they stand.
Two NATO troops also died of "non-battle related" injuries in the south and east of Afghanistan, the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
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