| | Authorities find evidence Afghan blasts were planned CNN
03/14/2010
By Matiullah Mati
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Kabul - Authorities recovered eight explosive-laden vests and three rockets in Kandahar on Sunday, indicating that the series of deadly explosions that rocked the southern province a day earlier were an organized attack, the interior ministry said.
In all, the five explosions, which all occurred in Kandahar city, killed 35 people and wounded 57 others, said ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. All but one of them were carried out by a suicide bomber, officials said.
The first explosion, a suicide car bomb, took place near the province's main prison. At the same time, a second suicide car bomb went off in front of the police headquarters, Bashary said.
"The goal of the enemy from last night's attacks was to break down the prison and to free the criminals," he said.
The third attack was carried out by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle, and another targeted a bus station.
Investigators do not yet know whether the fifth attack was also the work of a suicide bomber or resulted from a roadside bomb.
The fatalities comprised of 13 police officers and 22 civilians, including six women and three children.
Among the wounded were 40 civilians and 17 police officers, Bashary said.
Last week, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan vowed that coalition forces "are absolutely going to secure Kandahar," as security efforts expand in the country's southern region.
"We already are doing a lot of security operations in Kandahar, but it's our intent -- under President (Hamid) Karzai -- to make an even greater effort there," Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters Tuesday.
McChrystal indicated a military operation could begin in the volatile Kandahar province as early as this summer, but both McChrystal and Mark Sedwill, the NATO senior civilian representative to the country, cautioned that much political groundwork lay ahead for NATO-led coalition troops before an offensive can begin. Just as in the recent Marjah operation, the goal, they said, is to gain the support of the Afghan people.
The push to secure Kandahar from what McChrystal calls a "menacing Taliban presence" is part of a larger counterinsurgency effort in the country's south. The effort started last month in Marjah in southern Helmand province.
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