Suicide raid on US security firm kills 15 Afghans

A suicide car bomb attack outside a base of a US security firm yesterday killed 15 people in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, witnesses and police said.

Violence has surged in the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since US-led troops overthrew the Taliban's government in 2001.

The blast happened close to a highway on the western outskirts of Kandahar city, they said. Police said it was a suicide car bomber. Witnesses said it was aimed at a US security firm called USPI. A police vehicle and a passenger car were also hit by the explosion, witnesses said, adding three police were among the victims.

Kandahar's police chief, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 15 people had been killed in the attack. A Reuters reporter saw 15 bodies in the morgue of a hospital in Kandahar. They included five police, three women and a child, he said, adding 18 more people were wounded in the blast.

The attack came a day after a suicide bomber inside the city killed a district chief and three of his children at the gate of their home. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday's attack.