Suicide bomber targets Afghan police, 1 hurt

[January 11, 2012]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suicide bomber slipped inside police headquarters in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, detonating his cache of explosives and wounding one officer, the chief of the headquarters said.

No one but the attacker was killed by the blast, which occurred shortly after noon, Kandahar provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Razaq said.

According to Razaq's account, a bomber entered the station by claiming he was carrying a letter of complaint, which he told guards he was trying to deliver to police authorities.

Police initially said the bomber was 14 or 15 years old, but other witnesses said he was at least in his 20s.

The teenager managed to pass through checkpoints without the explosives being found, and was inside the police compound when an Afghan border policeman shouted at him, asking where he was headed, Razaq said. The attacker then immediately detonated the explosives.

Razaq's office was partially destroyed and the windows of his office were shattered.

A statement from Kandahar's provincial government said the attacker was actually inside the waiting room outside Razaq's office when he detonated the explosives.

The one-time Taliban stronghold of Kandahar has been particularly hard-hit by violence as insurgents seek to destabilize the local government. Three bombings in one day last week killed 13 people in the city.

"The insurgents have always tried to disrupt the security situation but they will never succeed," Razaq told reporters, according to a statement from the provincial government.

[Associated Press; By RAHIM FAIEZ]

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