KANDAHAR, Dec 6: At least 15 Afghans were injured in Kandahar on Saturday in a bomb blast that police blamed on the Taliban.

The explosion at the Shahidan Chowk roundabout shopping area destroyed five shops and shattered windows in nearby stores and hotels.

At least 15 people were injured but there were no reports of any fatalities, a police official said.

He said all the injured were Afghan civilians. “No foreigners were injured or killed.”

The official blamed the attack on “the enemies of the government”, an allusion to the Taliban, who continue to wage resistance in the south and east of the country two years after their ouster.

The spokesman said the bomb had been placed on a bicycle behind a parked car. Both were destroyed in the blast.

Debris from the explosion littered the road, which was splattered with blood. The injured were taken to hospitals and a large number of police were at the scene. It was the third attack in the city this week, following a grenade attack that seriously injured two US soldiers and an attack on a mosque.

The attacks follow a car bombing at the main UN compound in Kandahar on Nov 11 that injured three Afghans.

A bomb went off on Thursday evening in fields next to the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force and US embassy in Kabul shortly after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met President Hamid Karzai.—AFP