Suicide bombing kills three in Kandahar 
Foreign Desk Report

KANDAHAR (Afghanistan)—A suicide car bomb has exploded near a Canadian convoy in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, killing three bystanders in the latest attack blamed on Taliban insurgents.
More than a dozen civilians were wounded in the blast, which was also near a motorcade carrying provincial governor Assadullah Khalid who has been critical of the Taliban movement rooted in Kandahar province. The bomber, driving a SUV pick-up, detonated his explosives between two vehicles in a coalition patrol, coalition spokesman Major Scott Lundy said.
“There were no coalition casualties,” he said Sunday. The Canadian military said one of its soldiers had suffered minor injuries in a collision between two military vehicles as they were leaving the scene. Canada has 2,300 soldiers in Kandahar province and has been the target of several suicide attacks,
The interior ministry said the attacker had killed himself and three civilians, and wounded 13 other Afghans. It had earlier said four civilians died. The ministry said the governor appeared to have been the target of the attack. “It was the work of the enemies of the government,” spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said, using a phrase that generally refers to the Taliban. But Khalid said he did not believe the blast was directed at him.
“The explosion was in between our convoy and a coalition convoy. The attacker tried to pass us and we let him go — that means the target was not me, it was the coalition,” he said. President Hamid Karzai “ordered the security forces to pursue and punish those behind the brutal attack,” his office said in a statement. The blast shattered the windows of several businesses and at least one shop caught fire, witnesses said. There were body parts at the scene of the blast.
There have been dozens of suicide blasts in Afghanistan in the past eight months, usually aimed at Afghan or foreign security forces. Late Friday another suicide attacker exploded a car bomb just outside Kandahar city, killing three men on a motorbike. A provincial official said a Canadian convoy had just passed when the blast struck. The Taliban claim to have hundreds of people ready to carry out suicide missions. The extremist Islamic movement was removed from power in late 2001 in a US-led coalition assault.