KABUL: A string of attacks across Afghanistan, including a suicide bomber pushing an ice cream cart, killed at least 21 people Saturday, officials said, while the UN released a report showing May to be the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since 2007. The worst attack Saturday took place in the Khakrez district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, where a roadside bomb killed all 16 members of a family traveling to a shrine. The family included eight children, five women and three men who were in a minibus, said provincial police chief Abdul Raziq. He said the bomb was planted by the Taliban and was intended for NATO or Afghan forces. In the eastern province of Khost, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the local police headquarters in the Shai Kali area, killing three policemen and a child, according to provincial police chief Sadar Mohammad Zazai. Among the four people killed in the blast was a local police chief, Mohammad Zahir Khan, Zazai said. It was not immediately clear whether Khan was specifically targeted. Provincial health director Hedayatullah Hamidi said 25 people were wounded in the attack. Another suicide bomber, this one pushing an ice cream cart, killed one child and wounded three more in the central province of Ghazni, according to provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain. “The suicide attacker was a young boy with a thin beard and mustache wearing a scarf,” said an eyewitness who identified himself as Asadullah. “He was pushing an ice cream cart. I was just standing 20 meters from him and then he exploded.” President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombings, and said “all Afghans want peace and stability in their country and none of these cruel and inhuman actions will stop the aim of peace.”
