By Ismail Sameem and Mirwais Afghan
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killedmore than 80 people at a picnic spot in the southern Afghanprovince of Kandahar on Sunday in the most deadly attack sincethe Taliban were ousted in 2001, the government said.
The attack will add urgency to a debate about how theUnited States and Afghanistan's other allies can help stemmilitant violence and promote stability.
"This event ... left behind more than 80 killed and 50wounded," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The deathtoll may rise because some of the wounded were in a criticalcondition.
The attack happened in a field where a crowd of peopleincluding police were watching dog fights in Arghandab, on thewestern outskirts of Kandahar city.
Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid said it was the work ofAfghanistan's enemies, a term used by the government to referto Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda militant allies.
The Taliban, behind a surge of suicide attacks againstforeign forces and the Afghan government, could not immediatelybe contacted for comment.
The head of an auxiliary police force in Kandahar, AbdulHakim, was among the dead, Khalid said.
After the blast, some of Hakim's guards fired at the crowdcausing casualties, witnesses said.
Reporters were not allowed to talk to the wounded inhospitals and officials had no comment about the reports ofpolice firing.
The Interior Ministry said it was the bloodiest attacksince U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.
In November, a suicide bomb attack against a group oflawmakers and subsequent firing by police killed more than 75people, including six politicians, in the northern province ofBaghlan.
After that blast, it was not clear how many were killed bythe bomb and how many by the police firing.
STRONGHOLD
Thirteen other policemen and six children were killed onSunday, a police official near the site of the blast said.
"The match was going on and all of a sudden the explosionwent off," said witness Abdul Rahman whose brother was killed.
Dog-fighting is a popular pastime in Afghanistan. Thehard-line Taliban banned it during their rule, along with otherforms of entertainment such as music, dancing and television.
Kandahar is a stronghold of the Taliban who largely rely onsuicide attacks and roadside bombings in their campaign toforce foreign troops out of Afghanistan and topple itsgovernment.
Despite the presence of more than 50,000 foreign troops ledby NATO and the U.S. military, as well as some 140,000 Afghantroops, the militants have made a comeback in the past twoyears, and more than 11,000 people have been killed inviolence.
Most has been concentrated in areas bordering Pakistanwhere the militants have taken refuge in lawless border areasfrom where they have also attacked deeper into Pakistan.
Some Western politicians say more troops are needed totackle the insurgency or Afghanistan will slide back intoanarchy.
President Hamid Karzai who has been leading Afghanistansince the Taliban were ousted instead wants the strengtheningof the Western-trained Afghan forces and more funds.
(Additional reporting and writing by Sayed Salahuddin;Editing by Robert Birsel and Robert Woodward)
