Southern Afghanistan Suicide Bombing Kills 22

Afghan policemen stand guard as two US soldiers (C) arrive at the site of a twin suicide attack near NATO's Kandahar Air Base, June

SLAMABAD - A large double suicide bombing has killed more than 22 people and wounded at least 50 in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

One bomber blew up a crowded parking lot packed with truck drivers. The second waited until people rushed into help the injured and dying, then detonated his explosives.

One eyewitness, taken to Kandahar hospital with injuries to his hands and feet, described the attack. He says that when the first explosion took place, he ran out of his shop to where the bomb had gone off when the second explosion happened.

He says as he walked he saw dead bodies lying on the ground, then he does not remember anything after that.

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Rahmatullah Atrafi, deputy police chief in Kandahar province, describes the site of the bombing as a busy marketplace fed by the main highway connecting Kandahar and Spin Boldak, a town near the Pakistan border.

He says the victims were innocent people busy selling goods, as well as eight people working for a security company that had a local office near the market.

The United States condemned the bombing, which officials say took place near a NATO base.

In a separate incident, two NATO troops were killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan.  NATO said the cause of the crash is under investigation.