Kabul - An explosion rocked Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 80 people and injuring dozens, the provincial governor said. "According to information from the hospitals, 60 dead bodies are in there (hospitals) and another 20 dead people were taken away by their relatives, so in total 80 people were killed," Assadullah Khalid told reporters in Kandahar.
The governor said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a crowd of people gathered in the western part of the city to watch a dog-fighting competition.
It was the deadliest suicide attack since the ouster of Taliban regime in late 2001.
Khalid was unable give a precise toll of injured victims, saying "dozens were wounded, but we know have any figure now."
Earlier Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said that "dozens were killed and dozens more wounded."
A witness in Kandahar said that it was a suicide attack that killed more than 50 people including a famous former commander.
Kandahar province is the birth place of the Taliban militants, who are still entrenched in the province six years after being ousted from power by a US-led military invasion.
