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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: A strong blast rocked the southern Afghan city of Kandahar near the city's intelligence agency offices on Wednesday, killing three and wounding at least 39 people, doctors said.
Authorities could not say what had caused the explosion but it was believed to be a bomb. The city has been hit by a series of attacks by Taliban insurgents in recent months.
The bodies of three people, including that of a woman, were in the city's main Mirwais hospital, doctor Mujeeb-ul-Rehman told AFP.
"Including one woman, three people are dead, more than 30 people are wounded. Most of the wounded have superficial injuries," he said.
The blast was in the centre of the city near the offices of the National Directorate of Security, the country's intelligence agency, as well as the government's provincial council and the chamber of commerce.
At least 39 wounded people were brought out of the area, which was cordoned off by security forces, who allowed several ambulances to enter. It was not immediately clear if there were any fatalities.
Several buildings, including homes, were damaged, he said.
Ahmad Jan, a teenager living in the area, said the roofs of two houses had collapsed and people were looking for people underneath the rubble.
In Kabul, the interior ministry confirmed the explosion but had no details. "There has been a blast in Kandahar city. At this stage we have no details. Police are at the scene," spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.
Kandahar has been the scene of a series of bomb attacks blamed on the Taliban.
In one of the most audacious attacks, militants used suicide bombers to blow open the Kandahar jail in mid-June, enabling more than 1,000 prisoners – about half of them militants – to escape.
On September 7, two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up inside the provincial police headquarters, killing five people and wounding nearly 40.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001 when they were removed in a US-led invasion for sheltering their Al-Qaeda allies after the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Their insurgency gained pace in 2005 with a spate of suicide attacks across the country, most often in the volatile south.
Attacks are at a record level this year, despite the presence of tens of thousands of international troops and the growing strength of the Afghan security forces.
- AFP/so
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