KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 20 (UPI) -- Afghan militants blew up an explosives-laden donkey cart in Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing three children and wounding four others, authorities said.
Kandahar government spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi said those wounded in the Monday blast included two policemen and two civilians, CNN reported. The cart explosion was set off with the help of a remote device at a police post, the report said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, with a spokesman saying as many as 11 people died in the explosion.
"Today's donkey cart bomb explosion was on foreign forces, which killed 11 foreigners and four were injured," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said, CNN reported.
The Kandahar region is the next focus of the anti-Taliban campaign by U.S. and NATO forces. It is expected to start in June.
"Our message in this is to tell them we are present here and now we are showing our power, too," Ahmadi was quoted as saying.
The apparent target of the attack was Hajji Fazludin Agha, a pro-government figure who supported President Hamid Karzai in the presidential election last August, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
"A cart full of alfalfa and pulled by donkey exploded next to my house unfortunately claimed the lives of three innocent children, all from my family," Fazludin Agha told Xinhua.
The attack was the fourth since last week in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, the report said. The attacks have killed at least 16 people and injured dozens more.
