At least 35 people have been killed and 47 wounded when a series of explosions described by the Taliban as a message to NATO hit Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, CNN has reported.
The TV channel quoted provincial governor Tooryalai Wesa's spokesman as saying the blasts occurred on Saturday in four locations, including near the police headquarters in Kandahar and near the province's prison.
The causalities reportedly include Afghan security forces and civilians. According to the spokesman, the death toll and the injuries are expected to rise.
The attack at the prison is believed to be an attempt to repeat a jailbreak in 2008, when around 1,000 prisoners, including 400 Taliban fighters, were freed after the militants blew the prison gates open with a massive truck bomb.
Taliban said on its website the bombings were a "message" to NATO commanders planning a large operation in the area.
Coalition forces officials in Kabul were quoted by CNN as saying the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kandahar was not targeted.
ISAF commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, indicated on Tuesday a military operation in Kandahar could begin as early as this summer.
ISAF currently has some 89,000 troops in Afghanistan, with most of them deployed in the country's volatile south and east. U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to send an additional 30.000 soldiers to the war-ravaged country in the first part of 2010 to defeat the Taliban and establish law and order. Other NATO members have said they will send 7,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti)
