Daud Ahmadi, a provincial spokesman, said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Afghans, including two policeman, and wounded at least 23 other people.
A statement released late yesterday by NATO headquarters in Kabul said the explosion killed and injured dozens of Afghan civilians, Afghan national security forces, and coalition troops. The statement did not disclose further details about how many foreign troops had been killed or wounded.
“With today’s horrendous attack at the Kajaki Sofla Bazaar, insurgents have once again destroyed the lives of dozens of innocent Afghan civilians,’’ Allen said in the statement.
Taliban leader Mohammad Mullah Omar “has lost all control over Taliban insurgents, otherwise he would immediately denounce these attacks and order his forces to stop attacking innocent Afghan civilians,’’ Allen said.
More than a year ago, Omar, the Taliban’s reclusive leader, did urge his fighters to try to avoid killing innocent civilians.
But suicide bombings and roadside bombs have continued to kill ordinary citizens along with NATO and Afghan forces. Taliban insurgents have assassinated hundreds of Afghan government officials and supporters in recent years, seeking to sap confidence in President Hamid Karzai’s administration.
Farther south in Helmand Province, an Afghan intelligence official in Nad Ali district and two of this bodyguards were killed yesterday in an explosion, Ahmadi said. A remote-controlled bomb was detonated as the official, Wali Mohammad Khan, walked out of his house.
