Monday, September 18 2006 16:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kabul: A suicide attacker detonated himself today (Sept 18, 2006) in the middle of a group of children in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, wounding 14 foreign troops and a number of civilians, most of them kids. The soldiers were handing out candy to the children when the attacker rode a bicycle to the group and detonated explosives on his body, said Major Quentin Innis, a spokesman in Kandahar for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Some of the children received life-threatening injuries and the attacker died, security sources said. The sources said the attack was aimed at one of the force's patrols and the injured troops were taken to a military hospital. The ISAF did not release the soldiers' nationalities, but the largest foreign force in Kandahar is the of Canadians. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, claimed responsibility for the attack, the Pakistan-based, private Afghan Islamic Press agency said. It said the spokesman telephoned to say that the ISAF patrol was attacked in Kolf in the Pashmol area by a suicide bomber named Qudratullah, who was on a bicycle. Innis said the attack occurred in the Zhari district, 20 km west of Kandahar city, a region that the ISAF had said Sunday it had cleared of the Taliban. NATO's 15-day offensive against the Taliban in Zhari and another district resulted in the deaths of more than 510 Taliban fighters and at least 21 NATO troops. Hundreds of people were also displaced from their homes.