Three Afghan kids killed in donkey-drawn cart bombing

KANDAHAR - Three children were killed and four people were injured when a bomb hidden in a donkey-drawn cart exploded in southern Afghanistan, officials have said.

The cart was abandoned in front a tribal chief’s residence in the centre of Kandahar city Monday afternoon and was then remotely detonated, said Zalmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar province.

Haji Fazelluddin, the former governor of Spin Boldak district, was not hurt in the attack, but three of his nephews, aged 12 to 14, were killed, he said, adding that two police officers guarding the residence and two civilian passers-by were injured.

Fazelluddin is an influential tribal elder in the province and one of the main allies of President Hamid Karzai in the region.

No group immediately took responsibility for Monday’s bombing. It came four days after a suicide bomber carried out an attack in the centre of Kandahar city, killing three Afghans and wounding around two dozen people, including foreign contractors.