At least three people have been killed and many more injured in a suicide car bomb attack in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, said officials on Thursday.
Police officials at the site of the blast said the three people killed in the explosion included the suicide bomber, with at least 17 others injured in the attack.
Thursday's suicide attack took place at the center of Kandahar city, Afghanistan's second city and the capital of Kandahar province. Following the blast, Afghan security forces cordoned off the explosion site and have initiated an investigation.
Police officials believe the bomb had exploded pre-maturely, foiling the attacker's plan to target the city's busy main road. Though no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, police blamed Taliban insurgents for the bombing and said the target of the attack was not clear.
Kandahar province is one most the most volatile regions in Afghanistan and is considered to the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
Thursday's explosion in the volatile province occurred just hours after Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said that the security situation in the war-torn Asian country has not deteriorated in the recent months.
Gen McChrystal, however, acknowledged wile talking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Turkey that the threats posed by high levels of insurgency there still remains serious.
"I think we have made significant progress and set the conditions in 2009 and we'll make new progress in 2010," added the U.S. General, who had warned in a speech made in London last year that the situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating.
Gen McChrystal's optimistic remarks about a possible turnaround in the security situation in Afghanistan came ahead of a planned joint offensive involving the Afghan security forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)in the Taliban stronghold of the southern Helmand province.
Though the actual date on which the joint offensive will commence is yet to be announced, it would be the first major anti-militant operation since U.S. President Barack Obama pledged thousands of additional U.S. troops in December for deployment in Afghanistan.
Currently, the Afghan security forces, along with a coalition of foreign troops under the command of NATO and the United States, are struggling to contain a resurgent Taliban in the war-torn country.
There are some 110,000 foreign troops from more than 42 countries in Afghanistan under the commands of the NATO and the United States, fighting Taliban insurgents. The US tops the list with more than 62,000 soldiers.
U.S. President Barack Obama had recently cleared 30,000 additional U.S. troops for Afghanistan, while indicating troop withdrawal from Afghanistan to begin as early as July 2011, after handing over security responsibilities to Afghan security forces.
The U.S. and its allies are currently making efforts to get the Afghan security forces ready and capable of handling Afghanistan's security before the international coalition troops eventually withdraw from the country. It is believed a strong Afghan military is essential to fill the void when international coalition troops eventually leave Afghanistan.
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