Afghan Bombing Strikes at Foreign Agencies

By TAIMOOR SHAH

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A huge bomb detonated on Tuesday night in a part of Kandahar where international aid agencies and United Nations offices are clustered, in an attack assumed to be by the Taliban on foreigners in the country.

At least 31 people were killed and 56 wounded in the blast, which shook the entire city just after dusk at 7 p.m., when Afghans were gathered for the festive evening meal that breaks their daily Ramadan fast. Officials said most of the dead and wounded were civilians. The explosion flattened the headquarters of Saita, a Japanese company engaged in reconstruction efforts, destroyed at least 20 homes and set off raging fires.

A witness, Muhammad Anwer, said the devastation was immense. “I thought it was doomsday,” he said. “I saw dead men and children lying on the road.”

Provincial officials in this southern Afghan city initially said that five car bombs had been involved, but later said the explosion appeared to be from a single truck bomb outside the building used by Saita. Officials said that the attack appeared to be aimed at the company, which employs mostly Pakistani workers.

The toll was expected to rise. More people appeared to be trapped in the rubble of the destroyed buildings, and fires burned in dozens of nearby shops.

At the Marwais hospital in central Kandahar, injured children lay in hospital beds, some missing limbs. “We have received 30 bodies,” said Dr. Mohammed Daoud Farhad, the hospital’s director. “Most of them are civilians, including women and children. And still there are more coming.”

Kandahar has been relatively quiet over the last several months, and witnesses said that this explosion was the largest in the city in years.

There was no initial claim of responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the Taliban, who have been carrying out attacks of increasing complexity and brutality in Kandahar against Afghan and international forces and those allied with them.

The Taliban also mounted a campaign of violence and intimidation against potential voters in Thursday’s presidential election. During the voting in Kandahar, 20 rockets hit the city, many near polling stations, and four people were killed, hospital officials said.

Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York.