Afghan suicide bombing kills 14

A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday in a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan, killing 14 people and wounding 31, officials and witnesses said.

The attack, which destroyed or damaged about 30 shops, came a day after a suicide bomber in northern Afghanistan killed three German soldiers and seven bystanders.

Witnesses said a convoy of foreign troops appeared to be the target, but that it had already passed when the bomber struck.

Maj. William Mitchell, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s International Security Assistance Force, said there were initial reports of injuries to coalition soldiers, though he didn’t have further details.

Six people died at the scene of the blast, police said. Eight more died later, said Ghulam Hazrat Majedi, the doctor in charge of the Gardez hospital. He said two of the 31 wounded were in critical condition.

Afghan soldiers donated blood for the wounded.

Nasar Ahmad, a 30-year-old shopkeeper whose three cousins were seriously injured, said he saw a U.S. convoy driving through the city just before the explosion.

“I heard a strong blast and then saw a fireball go up,” Ahmad said from Gardez hospital. “For 10 minutes I couldn’t hear and I didn’t know where I was. I saw a lot of people injured lying in the street.”

Violence in Afghanistan has increased sharply in the last several weeks. More than 1,600 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on data from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials. The dead mostly have been militants, but about 300 civilians also have died.