Bomb Blast in Western Afghanistan Kills 10

A remote-controlled bomb exploded today in western Afghanistan's main city, killing 10 and critically wounding a district police chief, the main target of the attack. Police said 30 were injured. The bomb went off on a crowded street near a fruit market in Herat. The police chief for a nearby district was driving into town; he was transferred to a NATO-run hospital in critical condition, police said.

The blast blew out windows in a 100-yard radius. Several casualties were fruit vendors, a police spokesman said. Witnesses said the bomb left a 1-yard-wide crater in the street and damaged two police vehicles. A Taliban spokesman said the group targeted the police chief. Meanwhile, in the north of the country, an ambush on Korean road engineers at a construction site left one of their Afghan drivers dead, an official said.