4 Children, Cop Killed in Kandahar Suicide Attack

A suicide bomber on a motorbike struck a crowded bazaar in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday, killing four children and a policeman, a police commander told Agence France Presse.

The attacker detonated his explosives near a mobile police post as officers ordered him to stop, Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq told AFP.

"The attacker was on a motorbike in a crowded bazaar in Kandahar city near the border police mobile checkpoint. When police stopped him he detonated his explosives, killing five, including four children and one police," he said.

Sixteen other people, including three police officers, were wounded, Raziq added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but similar ones have in the past been blamed on or claimed by the Taliban, the main group behind a nearly 10- year long insurgency.

There are around 130,000 international troops, mainly from the United States, in Afghanistan helping government forces combat the insurgency.

On December 29 a Taliban improvised roadside bomb killed 10 Afghan police in the neighboring province of Helmand and a day later a similar device killed four civilians in Uruzgan province's Trinkot.