KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: Five car bombs detonated in a single simultaneous blast Tuesday in Afghanistan’s largest southern city, flattening buildings and killing at least 41 people.
The force of the explosion just after nightfall shattered windows around the city and sent flames shooting into the sky. Officials feared the death toll could rise as several houses and nearby buildings had collapsed. At least 66 people were wounded, said Gen. Ghulam Ali Wahabat, a police commander in charge of southern Afghanistan.
Afghan officials said the blast appeared to target a Japanese construction company that mostly employs Pakistani engineers. The blast collapsed the company’s headquarters and destroyed part of a nearby wedding hall. It was not clear why the construction company was targeted. The blast destroyed about 40 shops.
“Once again they’ve killed children, women, innocent Afghans. They are not humans. They are animals. You can see for yourself the destruction of this enemy,” said deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Sher Shah.
Five vehicles filled with explosives detonated together, causing the massive blast, said provincial council member Haji Agha Lalai.
Taleban militants have carried out several complex attacks in Kandahar the last several years. Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taleban. A large NATO base sits on Kandahar’s outskirts, but militants control districts immediately to the city’s west.
In other violence, a bomb blast killed four US soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, said US military spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker. No other information was released pending the notification of family members.
The deaths bring to 41 the number of US troops killed in Afghanistan this month. Last month a record 44 US soldiers died.
The violence came as the Afghan election commission announced the first official returns for Thursday’s presidential election. President Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah both have roughly 40 percent of the nationwide vote with 10 percent of polling stations counted, the commission said.
It said President Hamid Karzai has 40.6 percent and Abdullah has 38.7 percent of the votes. But the returns come from only 22 of the country’s 34 provinces and represent votes from just 10 percent of the country’s polling stations. The commission plans to release more results in the coming days, but final certified results won’t be ready until at least mid-September.
