FARAH CITY (PAN): More than a dozen people, mostly civilians, were killed in a powerful suicide bombing in the western province of Farah, near the border with Iran, Friday morning, officials said.

At least 29 others were wounded in the attack that occurred in the provincial capital at 9.30am, the Farah police chief told Pajhwok Afghan News. He said the bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in a busy square.

Gen. Faqir Ahmad Askar said the wounded included children, who were shifted to a nearby hospital. The suicide attack, coming a day after President Hamid Karzai's inauguration, happened close to a truck stop.

Putting the death toll at 13, Gen. Askar believed Taliban militants were behind the rush-hour bombing. He said the deadly attack was in reaction to joint counterinsurgency operations by Afghan and foreign forces in the area.

Governor Roohul Amin, who confirmed the heavy explosion, said the attack happened about 50 meters from his office. He added some of the injured were in a critical condition. The fatalities included three police officials.

According to Askar, the bomber's body was badly mutilated and could not be recognised immediately. The police chief said he was not clear whom the attacker wanted to target.

On Thursday, 10 civilians were killed and as many wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vest in a crowded bazaar in central Uruzgan province.

The bomber on foot detonated explosives strapped to his body after police opened fire at him. The attacker wanted to target a joint convoy of police and Afghan National Army in front of the Deh Rawood district police headquarters.

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