Twin bomb explosions kill 10 Afghans at dog fight

Afghan police inspect the scene of a twin bomb blasts targeting a weekly dog fight in the Arghandab district of the volatile Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, yesterday

Two bomb explosions tore through a crowd of villagers watching a dog fight in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar yesterday, killing 10 people, officials said.

The double bombing in Arghandab district targeted villagers and a police vehicle, killing eight civilians and two police, Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

The violence follows a deadly Taliban-led campaign of blasts and suicide attacks that have rocked Afghanistan this month and killed more than 100 people, mostly civilians.

"There have been two bomb blasts, one at the middle of a gathering and the other on the side of the road nearby. Eight civilians have been killed, two cops have been killed,” the spokesman said. 

He said a dozen civilians and five police were wounded.

Shah Mohamed, the district chief of Arghandab, said the attack was aimed at villagers watching a dog fight.

"People had gathered to watch dog fighting. Two explosions, from planted bombs, happened. Eight people, all civilians, have been killed,” he said.

An AFP reporter at the site saw human flesh scattered across the area and several barking dogs leashed to nearby electricity poles.

"I can see flesh all around me. There are pieces of clothes, shoes and hats scattered all around. I can see a dead dog just next to me,” the reporter said.

Dog fighting is popular in southern Afghanistan, but the Taliban banned it as un-Islamic and Sunday’s bombing was the latest attack to target people watching it. 

In February 2008 a suicide bombing killed more than 100 people gathered at a dog fight.

Also in the south, a Nato soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast, the alliance’s force said without giving further details.

In the western province of Herat a separate bomb explosion killed a 13-year-old boy and wounded a man, said Noor Khan Nikzad, a police spokesman. The device targeted a police vehicle, he said.

Recent bomb attacks have targeted densely packed civilian areas.

On February 20 nearly 40 people were killed in a gun and suicide attack by at least four Taliban militants on a bank in the eastern city of Jalalabad. That attack was the deadliest to hit the country since June last year.

On Saturday a suicide bomber in the northern province of Faryab killed four people during a buzkashi match, a traditional Afghan game played on horseback with a dead calf or goat.

Afghan police inspect the scene of a twin bomb blasts targeting a weekly dog fight in the Arghandab district of the volatile Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, yesterday.