Kabul, June 6 (IANS) At least 21 people were killed and more than 20 others injured when a motorcycle-borne Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up Wednesday in Afghanistan's Kandahar city, officials said.
The blast in Kandahar, the former stronghold of the Taliban, around 450 km south of the capital city Kabul, took place next to a bazaar where hundreds of people shop.
"It was a motorbike suicide attack carried out on the road leading to Kandahar airport this morning, killing 21 people and injuring 22 others, all civilians," Kandahar police chief Abdul Razeq told Xinhua.
The attacker was also killed in the blast, he confirmed.
Another senior police officer, Rahmatullah Atrafi, said there were two blasts which killed 21 people, including eight guards of a private security company.
He said more than 50 people were injured, all civilians.
A Taliban spokesman named Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, speaking to the media via telephone from an unknown location, claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
He said eight foreign soldiers were killed in the attack, a claim that wa srejected by police.
The Taliban launched a spring offensive codenamed "Al-Farooq" May 3.
Till April 30, a total of 579 Afghan civilians have been killed and 1,216 others wounded this year, according to UN figures.
A total of 3,021 civilians were killed in 2011 in the country.
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