Three Afghans were killed as two suicide attacks targeted the southern city of Kandahar.

Three Afghans were killed as two suicide attacks targeted the southern city of Kandahar.

Minister of border and tribal affairs and chief security coordinator for the south, Assadullah Khalid, said the first blast, which claimed the lives of two civilians, was targeting him.
But the interior ministry said there was no evidence the blast was aimed at Khalid and he himself admitted he was five kilometers away when it happened.

"There was an explosion -- a suicide bomber wearing explosives on his body detonated in an area where there was not an obvious target," interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui told AFP news agency.

Shortly afterwards in a different part of the city, a suicide bomber wearing army uniform struck inside an army garrison.
"It was a suicide attack that killed one guard and the attacker, two army soldiers were wounded," said General Abdul Hamid, commander of the army unit whose garrison was struck.

Insurgents have recently stepped up a campaign of political assassinations, killing President Hamid Karzai's younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai in Kandahar in July and his peace envoy Barhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul last month.