By Ismail Sameem and Mirwais Afghan
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Dozens of people,including children, were killed by an explosion at a picnicspot near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, witnessesand officials said.
The cause of the blast in the western outskirts ofKandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban, was not knownimmediately. Some people were also wounded by the explosionwhich went off in a field where spectators were watching dogsfight, the witnesses said.
"The match was going on and all of a sudden the explosionwent off," said witness Abdul Rahman whose brother was killed.
Hafizullah, a policeman at the scene, said 70 people,including some police, were either killed or wounded. Six ofthose killed were children.
A Reuters journalist counted at least 30 dead bodies beingtaken from the site.
Police sealed off the site of the blast. Pieces of fleshand body parts were scattered near the site and ambulancesrushed wounded to hospitals. Several police vehicles weredamaged by the explosion.
An interior ministry spokesman told a private televisionnetwork in Kabul that dozens were killed. He could not say whathad caused the blast, the bloodiest this year in Afghanistan.Dog-fighting is a popular pastime in Afghanistan.
Kandahar is a stronghold of the Taliban who have stepped upsuicide attacks and roadside bombings in recent months in theircampaign to force foreign troops out of Afghanistan.
U.S.-led forces overthrew Taliban's government in 2001after its leadership refused to hand over al Qaeda chief, Osamabin Laden, the suspected architect of Sept 11 attacks onAmerica.
The militants have made a come back in the past two yearsand more than 6,000 people were killed by violence in 2007alone.
(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin, editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
