Bomber kills 3 at memorial for Afghan President’s brother

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KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber on Thursday targeted a memorial service for the assassinated brother of the Afghan president, killing three people including a senior cleric and a child.

Local officials said 15 people were wounded when the attacker blew himself up in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar, where visiting cabinet ministers from the capital Kabul had to be airlifted to safety.

The bombing spotlights renewed instability in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan's bloodiest battlegrounds and the birthplace of the Taliban, in the power vacuum created by the death of powerbroker Ahmed Wali Karzai.
"Now we know that three people were killed and 15 injured in today's suicide attack," said Kandahar governor Toryalai Wesa.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but President Hamid Karzai blamed it on "enemies of the people of Afghanistan", referring to militants who have been fighting his Western-backed government for nearly 10 years."The president condemned this terrorist attack in the strongest terms possible," his office said.

The provincial authority and a national lawmaker said a number of high-ranking government officials had been present but were unhurt.