(3 Aug 2006) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of blast site
2. Police looking at car bomb wreckage
3. Close up of wreckage
4. Police looking at wreckage
5. SOUNDBITE (Pashtu) Haji Fyev Rafool, shop owner:
"I was sitting inside the shop - suddenly the car exploded and 21 people were killed, 13 were injured."
6. Various of damage
7. Various of security at scene
8. Injured in hospital being treated
9. Injured child on bed
10. Mid of two injured
STORYLINE
A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up in a crowded town market in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 21 civilians near a NATO convoy, officials said.
13 people were also injured in the blast, that left a scene of devastation in the heart of the town of Panjwayi in Kandahar province, said a provincial government spokesman.
Some of the victims were children, said an Interior Ministry spokesman.
A local police official said it was a suicide attack. He blamed the Taliban.
The attack, one of the deadliest bombings in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001 by US-led forces, came just days after NATO
took charge of security in the volatile south from the US-led coalition.
The bomber in Panjwayi blew up the car 200 metres (yards) from where three Canadian vehicles in a logistics convoy were parked, a spokesman for Canadian troops in Kandahar said.
The armoured vehicles were not damaged but were close enough to feel the force of the blast, he said.
The spokesman said it was unclear whether the attacker was targeting the civilians in the market or the convoy.
At least 14 shops were burned by the blast, that left a crater about 1.5 metres (five feet) across and 50 centimetres (1.5 feet) deep. The wreckage of the destroyed car was flung nearly 100 metres (yards) toward the district chief's office.
Body parts and debris littered the road.
The blast happened at around 2:30 p.m. (1030 GMT) when the market was busy, a provincial government spokesman said. He said authorities hadn't yet established the identity of the suicide bomber.
Also on Thursday in Kandahar province, two roadside bombs three hours apart killed one Canadian soldier and wounded four - the fourth NATO fatality in as many days.
Last month, Canadian troops were involved in a major offensive in Panjwayi district, regarded as a Taliban stronghold and an area where many farmers cultivate opium.
The hard-line Islamic militia has stepped up attacks this year, increasingly using suicide bombings, in a shift of tactics reminiscent of the bloody insurgency in Iraq.
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