KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of children on Monday in southern Afghanistan, causing multiple casualties, as NATO troops handed them gift items.
"A suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body in a crowd of children where the troops were distributing pens and notebooks to kids," a district police official informed.
He said 24 children were wounded, four of them in a critical condition, while officials said NATO peacekeepers were also injured.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed a bomb had exploded near a patrol in the city of Kandahar, causing "multiple casualties".
"Local civilians also suffered injuries from the blast," it said in a statement. "The ISAF soldiers were evacuated to military medical facilities for treatment."
It would not release the nationalities of the troops involved.
Police said the soldiers were Canadians, but this could not be immediately confirmed by the Canadian military which has 2,300 soldiers in Kandahar.
"It was a suicide attack," interior ministry spokesman Zemaray Bashari said in Kabul, also identifying the patrol as Canadian. "It inflicted both civilian and military casualties."
The attack was outside Kandahar city in an area where ISAF on Sunday declared that a major offensive to drive out Taliban fighters had succeeded.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing and said that 10 Canadian soldiers had died. The fundamentalist group frequently gives exaggerated death tolls for its attacks.
"Today at around 10:00 am a resident of Kandahar named Qudratullah detonated explosives strapped to his body targeting a Canadian foot patrol, which killed ten Canadian soldiers," purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.
