14 Mar 2010

Death toll in Afghan suicide bomb attacks 35

10:03 pm on 14 March 2010

A sophisticated Taliban assault on the key southern Afghan city of Kandahar has killed 35 people in a claimed revenge attack by militants, officials say.

A series of massive explosions rocked Kandahar in what appears to be one of the biggest coordinated assaults by the militants since their insurgency began more than eight years ago.

The interior ministry's spokesman said the dead included police officers and civilians, and another 57 people were injured.

The city was hit by five suicide bomb attacks and improvised bomb explosions at 8pm on Saturday local time.

The attacks come as tens of thousands of extra troops are arriving in Afghanistan as part of a new US-led counter-insurgency strategy aimed at speeding an end to the war on the Taliban uprising, now in its ninth year.