KANDAHAR, Jan 6: At least 15 people, mostly children, were killed and 11 others injured after a large bomb ripped through Kandahar city on Tuesday, police and military officials said.

The bomb exploded at lunchtime outside an army barracks in the southern Manzalbath district of the city, a former stronghold of Taliban, military commander Ahmad Shah said.

A smaller device exploded 20 minutes earlier about 100 metres away without causing casualties. An Afghan commando unit working with US forces to hunt down Taliban and Al-Qaeda men was based at the barracks.

Witnesses said the second blast tore through a crowd of onlookers which had gathered after the first explosion. Most of the casualties were curious children who had come from a nearby school.-AFP