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Afghanistan suicide bombings kill 31

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Four suicide bombers struck the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday evening, killing at least 31 people and destroying houses and shops, according to investigators.

Officials said the bombs exploded near a hotel, a police station and at the city’s main prison, possibly in an attempt to free Taliban militants.

Other reports indicated that a large blast at the prison was followed by a barrage of rockets.

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“There were four suicide bombers, including two in cars, and all the attacks happened within the city about 7:30 p.m.,” Mohammad Pashtun, chief of criminal investigations for Kandahar province, told The Times by telephone. “Thirty-one people have been killed and at least 45 are wounded. They are all civilians.”

Two of the bombs were believed to have been carried on a motorcycle and a bicycle. One of the explosions killed women and children in a wedding hall near the prison.

Rescue crews searched toppled buildings for the dead and wounded. Hospitals quickly filled up.

A statement posted on a Taliban website said the attack was a “message” to the “enemies of the mujahedin.” Kandahar is the Taliban’s spiritual center and a crucial test for NATO forces, including many of the 30,000 U.S. troops recently called up by President Obama.

U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization commanders said last week that a military operation would begin this year to force the militants from the city and province.

The campaign would follow the recent defeat of the Taliban in neighboring Helmand province in a Marine-led offensive.

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The Agence France-Presse news service quoted Zemari Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, as saying, “After the explosion, rockets were fired into the city. At this stage we don’t know how many, where they landed, or if they caused casualties,” he said. “The prison is under control.”

President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, a provincial council leader, told Reuters news agency that the attack may have been an attempt to free inmates from the prison. Taliban fighters struck the prison in a stunning raid in 2008, freeing almost 900 inmates, including hundreds of suspected militants.

The orchestrated blasts in Kandahar followed a similarly well-planned attack by suicide bombers and gunmen that killed 16 people, mostly foreigners, in downtown Kabul last month.

jeffrey.fleishman @latimes.com

Faiez is a special correspondent.

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