46 killed in 2 attacks on Afghan civilians

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suicide bombers launched several attacks in a remote corner of southwestern Afghanistan near the Iranian border yesterday, killing policemen and shoppers buying food to break their daily Ramadan fast. A market bombing in northern Afghanistan brought the overall toll to 46 in the deadliest day for civilians this year.

There were no claims of responsibility, but the attacks on opposite ends of the country, the provinces of Nimroz in the southwest and Kunduz in the north, came as Taliban insurgents and their allies step up attacks while international troops move to hand over security responsibility to Afghan forces. NATO plans to withdraw most of its troops by the end of 2014.

There have been relatively few insurgent attacks in Nimroz over the past year. Yesterday's bombings were in the provincial capital, Zaranj, where three men wearing suicide vests detonated their explosives in different neighborhoods, provincial police chief Musa Rasouli said. At least 25 civilians and 11 police were killed, he said.

Authorities said the casualties would have been far higher had they not learned of the plot beforehand. Police killed two would-be attackers Monday night and captured another three yesterday morning. Three more militants attacked the governor's compound but security forces killed them before they could detonate their vests.

One of the bombings was at midafternoon outside a hospital near a market packed with shoppers buying sweets for the feast marking the end this weekend of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. Another bombing struck outside the state television building, and the third hit an intersection in front of another bazaar.

Nimroz, whose provincial capital lies about 6 miles from the Iran border, is not regularly beset by insurgent attacks as are Helmand and Kandahar to the east. The sparsely populated province is partly desert, and its government representatives have repeatedly complained that it is neglected by officials who are focused on its more volatile neighbors.

In Kunduz province in the north, police said a motorcycle bomb outside a crowded bazaar in Archi district killed at least 10 people, including five children, and wounded at least 25 others, according to Hamid Agha, the district police chief.