Two killed in Afghan attack

KANDAHAR: Two civilians were killed on Monday when two bombs apparently aimed at a police commander exploded in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, police said.

The bombs, home-made devices widely used in Taliban insurgent attacks, were set off within a minute of each other as a police convoy passed by, deputy provincial police chief Fazil Ahmad Sherzad told AFP. Sherzad said he believed he was the target of the attack, although he was not in the convoy at the time. “I was the target. I take this road at this time every day going to work and back home,” he said. Following the bomb attack in Kandahar, the United Nations said it had ordered local staff to stay home for their own safety.

Amid rapidly deteriorating security in the city the agency’s foreign staff had been relocated to Kabul, said spokesman Dan McNorten. “We at the UN keep security measures under constant review. The safety of all our staff is of paramount importance,” he said, adding the agency had 200 local staff in Kandahar. “We have temporarily relocated some of our non-Afghan staff to Kabul, he said.