A suicide bomber blew himself up in a large crowd gathered at a dogfighting event just outside this city in southern Afghanistan, killing about 80 people and wounding more than 90 others in the country’s worst single bombing since 2001.
According to witnesses and officials, the bomber killed a local police chief, Abdul Hakim Jan, a number of his guards and scores of villagers attending the event in the Argandab district, just north of the city of Kandahar.
The governor of Kandahar Province, Asadullah Khaled, said 80 people had died and more than 90 had been wounded. A spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Kabul, Dr. Abdullah Fahim, said the Kandahar hospital had received 67 bodies. But some families had taken bodies straight home for burial from the scene of the blast, he said.
“This is the action of the enemies of our country,†Mr. Khaled said. “They do not let Afghans enjoy their lives and have a peaceful life.â€
A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, denied that the Taliban had carried out the attack and suggested it was a result of internal fighting within the Afghan government. “We did not carry out this blast in Kandahar — we strongly reject that,†he said by telephone.
Kandahar, a former stronghold of the Taliban, has been the scene of some of the country’s worst suicide attacks over the past two years as Taliban insurgents have tried to undermine the government of President Hamid Karzai.
The Argandab district, a rich agricultural valley north of the city, had long kept the Taliban at bay under the leadership of a powerful tribal chief, Mullah Naquibullah, but the district has become a target of the militants in the months since his death. The slain police chief, Mr. Jan, was a prominent anti-Taliban commander who was taking a determined stance against the insurgents.
There has been an exponential increase in casualties caused by suicide bomb attacks in recent months both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the results of more powerful explosives and more sophisticated and lethal tactics, government officials in both countries have said. In the past two years, suicide bombings in Afghanistan aimed at foreign troops often only killed the bombers and a few bystanders, but in recent attacks, often in crowded public places, local police officers and officials appeared to have been the targets.
The bombers have also used larger amounts of plastic explosives packed in vests on the front and back of their chests and packed ball bearings around the explosives, causing devastating damage to unprotected civilians. A November bombing in Baghlan, in which many were killed by ball bearings, represented a new level of carnage for Afghanistan.
Recent bombings in Pakistan have shown a similar pattern. A double suicide bombing on Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming procession on Oct. 18 in the city of Karachi caused unparalleled casualties, with 140 killed and 500 wounded, according to the government. Many of them were killed by ball bearings, police officials said.
In both countries security officials say the planning and expertise of the bomb attacks can be traced back to figures operating in the tribal areas of Pakistan, in particular North and South Waziristan. Two men cited are the Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, accused of being responsible for many recent suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the one that killed Ms. Bhutto, and another man, Mullah Abdullah, who was behind an attack on a five-star hotel in Kabul.
Hours after the explosion on Sunday, pale and shaken survivors were still at the scene. Abandoned shawls, shoes, caps and bits of human flesh were strewn on the bloodied field. Five vehicles, including police cars, had been badly damaged. The body of a man the police said was the bomber lay mangled.
Muhammad Khan, 25, said he had been knocked over by the blast. “I couldn’t hear or speak or walk,†he said. “My whole body was numb, and I thought I was injured, but my heart is working. Luckily my brother rushed and picked me up and poured water over my head. Thank God, I am fine.â€
People had traveled miles to watch the dogfights, a pastime that was banned by the Taliban when they were in power because it entails gambling. But the fights, involving huge Afghan mastiffs, have returned to much of the country, often sponsored by local commanders and landlords. In Argandab, they take place every Sunday during the winter, and huge crowds gather, attracting street vendors who hawk food and drinks.
Noor Muhammad, 32, said he had survived because he was sitting down and a dog in front of him blocked the force of the explosion. The police chief, who was nearby, was killed along with five of his bodyguards, he said.
He said he believed many more people had been killed in the attack. “I counted 30 vehicles carrying the dead bodies; in each car there were seven to eight dead bodies,†he said. “Thousands of people were watching the dogs fighting, including young children and old people. Some people were selling things like oranges and tea and other food from stalls. People had come from different parts of Kandahar Province.â€
Hospital officials in Kandahar said that children and teenagers were among the wounded, and that about 15 patients were critically hurt.
The Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 after the United States led an invasion in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but their insurgent movement has been gathering strength, and suicide bombings attributed to them have been increasing in the past few years.
The November suicide bombing, when the bomber attacked a parliamentary delegation visiting the normally quiet province, killed 72 people, 59 of them schoolchildren gathered to welcome the delegation. After that attack, Mr. Karzai said Taliban insurgents had committed 116 suicide bombings in 2007.
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