KABUL, Dec 22: Two soldiers were killed and five injured on Sunday when a hand grenade was thrown into a moving vehicle in the principal southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said.

Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for Kandahar provincial governor Gul Agha, said the casualties were all inside a landcruiser when the attack occurred at a road junction in the city at around 8:00 a.m. (0330 GMT).

“As far as we know it was a hand grenade. An investigation is going on,” he said, adding that the casualties were all military personnel.

A report by the Afghan Islamic Press agency said the blast was caused by a rocket accidentally exploding in a military vehicle.

Pashtun, however, said the debris around the vehicle, which had its windows blown out by the explosion, was not consistent with a rocket blast.

The incident in Kandahar, the stronghold of the former Taliban regime, comes exactly one year after President Hamid Karzai took office following the collapse of the militia under a US-led bombing campaign.

Pashtun said it was not known who was to blame for the attack, but said there was a possibility it was timed to coincide with Karzai’s anniversary.

“It is too soon to say who is behind this, but anyone who is an enemy of peace and stability in Afghanistan could have carried it out.

“It is possible there is a link to the anniversary of the government but I don’t think the enemy is that clever.”

As Sunday’s blast occurred, the president was addressing a high-level regional conference in Kabul on security in Central Asia.—AFP