Thirty-seven civilians were killed in an attack Tuesday night at a market bazaar and a school near Kandahar airport, Afghan officials said.
Another 35 people were wounded, the Afghan Defense Ministry said.
Nine terrorists were also killed, the ministry said. One was wounded, it said.
The Taliban took responsibility for the attack.
The assault occurred hours after a “Message to Obama” was posted to a video site, purportedly of Taliban suicide attackers warning that U.S. troops would not be safe in Afghanistan. In the video, 10 men dressed in head-to-toe white are seated in front of a large Taliban flag
Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Wednesday night that the Kandahar attack was over. He gave slightly different casualty numbers, saying 36 civilians were dead and 14 others wounded. Sediqqi claimed 11 attackers were killed and that the airport property was never penetrated.
Taliban fighters carrying machine guns had targeted foreign forces, a Taliban spokesman said in a statement.
Kandahar, the second-largest city in Afghanistan, is about 480 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of the capital of Kabul.
Taliban gunmen opened fire at a bazaar near the Kandahar airport at 6:20 p.m. local time (8:50 a.m. ET) Tuesday, said Samim Ekhpelwak, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province. Afghan forces returned fire.
