Market blast kills 16 in Afghanistan

KABUL -- A suicide bomber on Thursday walked into a crowded bazaar in the town of Deh Rawood, in Uruzgan province, and detonated his explosives, killing at least 16 civilians -- many of them women and children -- and wounding more than a dozen others, the province's governor and NATO military officials said. It was the largest insurgent attack against civilians since September.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bombing in restive Helmand province killed an Afghan police officer and wounded four other officers and a civilian, according to NATO officials.

The attacks came a day after a U.N. report said that last year was the bloodiest yet for Afghan civilians and blamed the Taliban's use of suicide attacks and roadside bombs for two-thirds of the noncombatant deaths.

The attack in Deh Rawood occurred at a bazaar where residents gather every Monday and Thursday to buy and sell livestock and food, according to the Uruzgan governor, Asadullah Hamdam, speaking by telephone. He said the bomber entered the bazaar on foot before detonating what appeared to be an explosives-laden waistcoat.

It was unclear what the bomber's target was, although Taliban insurgents have in recent months been blamed for a number of similar suicide attacks against Afghan civilians.

Hamdam said he sent a team to investigate the attack, and NATO forces in the area also responded, helping to evacuate the dead and treat the injured. NATO said its forces at the scene of the bombing discovered a "large amount" of opium.

The Helmand attack occurred in the town of Musa Qala and involved a suicide bomber driving a vehicle, according to initial reports. NATO said it was working with Afghan authorities to evacuate the wounded.

The NATO command reported that insurgents fired on a coalition helicopter in the Nadi Ali district of Helmand, but it said that the helicopter landed safely and that there were no casualties.

The latest attacks come as the Obama administration begins escalating the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan to deal with what has been a deteriorating security situation, particularly in the volatile southern provinces where the Taliban has been resurgent.

The United Nations said in a report released Wednesday that 2,412 Afghan civilians were killed in 2009, a 14 percent increase over the year before.

In the last large attack targeting civilians, 22 people were killed in September by a suicide bomber at a mosque in eastern Afghanistan.

Staff researcher Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.