The coordinated attacks around Kandahar city on March 13 night included two car bombs, six suicide attackers on motorbikes and bicycles plus four homemade bombs, Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said. At least 33 people died, including 10 women and children attending a wedding celebration in a hall next to a police station that was targeted.

Among the targets of Saturday night's explosions were a newly fortified prison and police headquarters. Wesa said at least six police officers were among the dead.

Another roadside bomb Sunday morning targeted a car carrying Pakistani construction workers south of the city in the district of Dand, Wesa said. Four of the Pakistani workers and their Afghan driver were wounded.

Kandahar province is considered the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban insurgency and is widely known to be the next stop for NATO and Afghan forces after a major combined push to take another militant stronghold in next-door Helmand province.

AP