Suicide Bomber Kills 21 Civilians in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 3 -- A suicide bomber detonated his car in the market of a southern Afghan town Thursday, killing 21 civilians and wounding 13, officials said. It was the deadliest attack to date in a wave of violence accompanying the NATO alliance's takeover of military operations from a U.S.-led force in southern Afghanistan.

No troops were injured in the blast, but officials said that four Canadian soldiers in a NATO contingent were killed and 10 were wounded in other attacks Thursday, all in volatile Kandahar province.

Officials said the market attacker exploded his vehicle about 200 yards from a NATO convoy in Panjwayi, about 30 miles west of Kandahar city. Survivors, including some children, were taken to a hospital. Police secured the scene of the explosion, which left shop fronts and motorcycles charred.

Islamic insurgents from the revived Taliban militia have been aggressively testing the resolve of NATO forces and their home governments as the command transition unfolds. They have killed seven NATO troops since Monday, when the official handover took place in Kabul.

This summer, more than 8,000 soldiers from 26 countries, led by British, Canadian and Dutch contingents, have poured into southern Afghanistan in one of the most ambitious military deployments in NATO's 57-year history. In addition to Islamic militias, an increasingly entrenched and violent network of opium poppy traffickers operates in the dry southern provinces.

The troops are gradually replacing a large, mostly U.S. force that has been battling Taliban fighters in conjunction with Afghan army troops for months. Since the insurgents' southern offensive began late last year, more than 1,700 people have been reported killed in combat or other violence, including about 70 foreign troops.

NATO officials here have pledged to pursue the insurgents relentlessly and to remain in Afghanistan as long as needed, but public support is already faltering in some member countries. A poll this week in Canada indicated that almost half of Canadians want their troops withdrawn; 17 Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

In other attacks Thursday, officials said, a bomb exploded during an early morning NATO patrol on the outskirts of Kandahar city, killing one Canadian soldier. A second bomb went off in the same spot three hours later, wounding three more Canadians. In a separate incident, insurgents hiding in a school fired rockets at a NATO patrol in Pashmul village near Kandahar, injuring six troops, officials said.

The great majority of recent attacks have occurred in the adjacent provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. Kandahar city has been a recurring target.

In May, U.S. airstrikes killed 15 civilians in Panjwayi district, the scene of Thursday's suicide bombing, after Taliban attackers ambushed U.S. and Afghan troops from positions in civilian homes.

Tribal and political leaders in the region have said people are intimidated by the Taliban fighters, who have burned schools, overrun remote government facilities and threatened to kill teachers and workers who collaborate with foreign forces.

The resurrected militia, which was originally based in Kandahar and ruled much of Afghanistan between 1996 and late 2001, has also garnered some local support because of the Western-backed central government's inability to protect and develop the country's impoverished and neglected southern region.

Also Thursday, the Afghan government ordered hundreds of South Korean Christians to leave the country, accusing them of seeking to undermine its Islamic culture. The group's leader, Choi Han Woo, denied that the 1,200 South Koreans, who had gathered in Afghanistan for relief work and a cultural festival, took part in any religious activities, the Associated Press reported.