A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a government convoy Thursday, killing three people on the street and wounding the information minister, according to the governor of Kandahar province.
Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid -- believed to be the intended target of the attack -- said the explosion killed three civilians on the street and slightly wounded Information and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Khurram and his chief deputy.
Both men were riding in an armoured vehicle in the convoy.
The governor, who sometimes travels in the convoy, said he wouldn't change the way he does his job out of fear of an attack.
"I will carry out my responsibilities and take care of Kandahar city," he told reporters.
Earlier Thursday, seven people were killed and several others wounded when two bombs exploded just minutes apart in Kandahar City.
Three of the dead were police officers, said a Taliban spokesperson, who added the co-ordinated explosions were designed to kill as many police as possible.
The first blast on Thursday was reportedly a remote-controlled bomb that killed four private security guards.
The second blast, just 15 minutes after the first, detonated as police officers attended to the wreckage created by the first explosion, killing three officers and wounding four, Kandahar province's police chief Esmatullah Alizai told The Associated Press.
Journalists were also hurt in the second explosion, including CTV's local freelance cameraman Jawed Yazamy, who received minor injuries when he rushed to the scene to cover the incident.
"After the blast I had no idea what happened. All I saw was dirt around me," said Yazamy, who was thrown several feet in the air in the blast. "I have no idea ... the power of the IED."
Though the speculation has not yet been confirmed, CTV's Steve Chao said it is possible that the attacks are intended as retaliation to last weekend's killing of the Taliban's Mullah Dadullah in neighbouring Helmand province.
Dadullah's body was not returned to his family, but was buried at an undisclosed location in the city, contrary to the Taliban's demands, Chao said.
"Time and time again in recent days we heard from a Taliban spokesman demanding that the Afghan government give back the bodies to families for burial."
The Taliban had warned of "bad consequences'' if Dadullah's body wasn't handed over to his relatives.
Co-ordinated attacks such as those seen in Kandahar early Thursday have been seen before in the city, but are still relatively rare in Afghanistan.
Purported Taliban spokesperson Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the attack was intended to kill police officers responding to the blast.
"First we set off a remote control explosion on a police vehicle, then we were waiting for the police to arrive on the scene, then we did a second blast,'' Ahmadi told AP by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
In further violence, militants attacked a joint NATO and Afghan police patrol in neighbouring Helmand province, causing an unknown number of casualties.
According to an AP report, the insurgents fired a rocket at the NATO vehicle and a gun battle ensued.
The NATO and Afghan forces were patrolling on foot at the time, and it is believed that only the driver was in the NATO vehicle at the time it was hit, said Ghulam Wali, Sangin district police chief.
The NATO International Security Assistance Force confirmed casualties had resulted from an incident in Helmand province, but no further details were released.
In other violence on Thursday, a provincial police chief in the normally quiet northern Badakhshan province was targeted. A roadside bomb hit the car he was travelling in on his way to work, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding the chief and three other guards, AP reports.
According to an AP tally based on U.S. NATO and Afghan numbers, about 1,800 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year.
With reports from CTV's Steve Chao and The Associated Press
