KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned Sunday's deadly car bombing in Kandahar city, saying only a "desperate enemy" would resort to such a cowardly act.
The Voice of America quoted the president's official Facebook page as saying the explosion outside a police station in the country's violence-hit southern region killed nine people and wounded 19 more. Earlier reports said the blast killed seven people, including five Afghan police officers, and that the incident was followed by 10 minutes of gunfire.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force also condemned the attack, VOA reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing although Kandahar is known to be a center of Taliban insurgency.
A day earlier, the United Nations said the Taliban were responsible for 2,300 civilian deaths in Afghanistan in 2011, higher than any previous year in the decade-old war. The insurgent group rejected the report.
The New York Times reported there have been a series of suicide bombings since Jan. 11 in Kandahar. An Afghan intelligence department official in Kandahar said informers and captured insurgents have said the insurgents are now focusing on the city and have been bringing in would-be suicide bombers to the city.
Separately, Afghan authorities said a U.S. soldier mistakenly shot and killed an Afghan guard at the U.S. military base in Sar-i-Pul in northern Afghanistan Friday night.
The U.S. soldier opened a door and saw a gun barrel and in a "mistaken act," opened fire, the governor told the Washington Post. NATO officials were investigating the incident.
