Taliban assault on Afghan city kills 35

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The inaugural ceremony of two-day Rotary Job Fair 2012, organised by Rotary International Bangladesh and sponsored by Citycell, in progress at BIAM Auditorium in the city Thursday. Rotary District Governor AHM Jaker was present on the occasion.

KANDAHAR, Mar 14 (AFP): A sophisticated Taliban assault on a key southern Afghan city killed 35 people, officials said Sunday as the militants claimed it was in revenge for plans to wipe them out.
A series of massive explosions rocked Kandahar late Saturday in what appears to be one of the biggest coordinated assaults by the militants since their insurgency began more than eight years ago.
The interior ministry's spokesman said the dead included police officers and civilians, and that another 57 people were injured.
"A total of 35 people were killed -- 13 police officers and 22 civilians," Zemarai Bashery told reporters, adding the injured included 40 civilians and 17 police officers.
The city had been hit by five suicide bomb attacks and improvised bomb explosions at 8 pm (1530 GMT) on Saturday, he said.
Kandahar's provincial governor Turyalai Wisa earlier said 31 people were killed in seven blasts, which included two suicide car bomb attacks.
Wisa said at least 10 of the dead were attending a wedding party, and the death toll could rise as rescue workers were still searching rubble for bodies.
Some of the explosions were caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a specialty of the Taliban militants, who consider Kandahar their spiritual home.
Around 25 shops and up to seven houses near the prison were destroyed, Wisa said.
Another explosion took place early Sunday close to the Kandahar office of a Japanese construction company, injuring five employees, including four Pakistanis and one Afghan. No other details were available.
In a phone call from an undisclosed destination, the Taliban spokesman said the attacks were retaliation for comments by the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan that Kandahar would be targeted in military efforts to eradicate the Taliban.
The attack comes as tens of thousands of extra troops are arriving in Afghanistan as part of a new US-led counter-insurgency strategy aimed at speeding an end to the war on the Taliban uprising, now in its ninth year.
The first major offensive of the new strategy is taking place in Helmand province, which neighbours Kandahar province, and US military leaders say Taliban strongholds in Kandahar are among future targets.
Meanwhile, AP from Kandahar adds: The governor of Kandahar province demanded more security around Afghanistan's largest southern city Sunday after a series of explosions killed dozens of people in the Taliban heartland - the target of the war's next major offensive by Afghan and international forces.
The blasts, which occurred one after another for 25 minutes across Kandahar city Saturday night, indicate that the insurgents remain a potent force in the area where NATO plans an assault later this year, the follow-up to an operation that has driven militants from a key stronghold in neighboring Helmand province.