By DPA
Kabul : An explosion rocked Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan Sunday, killing at least 80 people and injuring dozens, the provincial governor said.
“According to information from the hospitals, 60 bodies are there (hospitals) and another 20 dead were taken away by their relatives, so in total 80 people were killed,” Assadullah Khalid told reporters in Kandahar.
The governor said a suicide bomber detonated his explosive jacket in the midst of a crowd gathered in the western part of the city to watch a dog-fighting competition.
It was the deadliest suicide attack since the ouster of Taliban regime in late 2001.
Khalid was unable to give the precise number of the injured, saying “dozens were wounded, but we do not have any figure now.”
Earlier interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said that “dozens were killed and dozens more wounded.”
Kandahar province is the birthplace of the Taliban militants, who are still entrenched in the province six years after being ousted from power by a US-led military invasion.