24 killed in Afghan suicide blast as fighting rages

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in a bazaar in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 24 people and wounding more than two dozen others, police said.

The blast came as international and Afghan security forces battled militants on several fronts, with the US-led coalition announcing it had killed at least 40 insurgents in an ongoing operation in the volatile south.

The clashes come amid a surge in the insurgency-linked violence wracking Afghanistan, including a suicide bomb in Kabul last week that left 41 civilians dead and US-led air strikes early this month that officials said killed 64.

On Sunday, a suicide attacker with bombs strapped to his body rammed a motorbike into a police vehicle in a bazaar in Uruzgan province, causing an explosion that ripped through several shops, a witness said.

Twenty civilians and four policemen were killed in ...