Nine killed by Afghan car bomb

A car bomb in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar killed at least nine people and wounded 19 today, the province's media office said.

Five police officers and two civilians were among the dead.

"The explosion took place near a busy shopping area of (the) city," it said.

Last year, fighting in Afghanistan killed more than 3,000 civilians, the United Nations said yesterday, the fifth year in a row that the number of civilian deaths has risen.

Suicide attacks carried out by insurgents and roadside mines were the biggest killers of non-combatants, the UN report said.

Reuters