Blast in market Two killed in S. Afghanistan

Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 9:11 pm

KANDAHAR: A bomb exploded in a market in southern Afghanistan killing two civilians, including a child aged seven, and wounding nine others, police said Wednesday.

The device went off in the centre of a market north of Tarin Kowt, the capital of Oruzgan province, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat told. “The bombing took place around noon in a marketplace in the north of the city. A bomb exploded among the crowd,” he said.

“A seven-year-old child and an adult were killed and nine other civilians, including four children, wounded, but their lives are not in danger.” Taliban militants, who are well implanted in Oruzgan province, have stepped up their insurgency in the past two years despite the presence of around 70,000 NATO and US troops in the country.

They were driven out of power by a US-led coalition in late 2001 following the September 11 terror attacks that year against the United States.