Kandahar, Afghanistan - At least 16 people were killed near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday when a bus they were travelling in hit a mine which police alleged had been laid by the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
Witnesses said the blast had left a crater one metre deep in the road, and there was debris and blood spread over a wide area. The blast took place at Rambaha, about 20km south of Kandahar, the former stronghold of the ousted Taliban militia.
"This was an al-Qaeda attack for sure, and could have some links to Hekmatyar," Ustad Nazir Jan, police chief of Kandahar, told Reuters.
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Renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been blamed for a series of bomb blasts in Afghanistan in recent months and rebels loyal to him were attacked by United States troops near the Afghan-Pakistan border earlier this week.
Local officials said that 15 people died immediately, one died on the way to hospital and the two remaining people in the vehicle were injured.
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