KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A homicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a police patrol in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 24 people, including 19 civilians, said a provincial police chief.
The attack in the southern province of Uruzgan also killed five police officers and wounded more than 30 others, said Juma Gul Himat.
The bomber struck the police patrol at a busy intersection of Deh Rawood district, Himat said. The bombing also damaged or destroyed about nine shops in the area, he said.
Most of those killed and wounded were shopkeepers and young boys selling cigarettes and other goods in the street, Himat said.
Afghan civilians have suffered from a rash of bombings this month. Around 55 civilians were killed in a massive bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday, while a government commission said this week that U.S. airstrikes killed 47 civilians in eastern Nangarhar province on July 6.
Elsewhere, Taliban militants executed two women in central Afghanistan after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a U.S. base.
The women, dressed in blue burqas, were shot and killed late Saturday just outside Ghazni city in central Afghanistan, said Sayed Ismal, a spokesman for Ghazni's governor. He called the two "innocent local people."
Taliban fighters told Associated Press Television News that the two were executed for allegedly running a prostitution ring catering to U.S. soldiers and other foreign contractors at a U.S. base in Ghazni city.
1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a U.S. military spokesman, said he has never heard of allegations "anything close to that nature."
In eastern Logar province, gunmen kidnapped parliament member Abdul Wali and his driver on Sunday, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Mustafa.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox