Pat Dollard | Young Americans

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded dozens more Sunday, a governor said. It appeared to be the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

More than 300 people had gathered to watch the event on the western edge of the southern city of Kandahar, including several Afghan militia leaders.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said 80 people were been killed. Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman, said 67 had been killed and 90 wounded, though he said the toll could rise.

The attack was the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001 fall of the Taliban regime, after a suicide bombing in the north in November last year killed 79 people — most of them school children.

Officials blamed Taliban insurgents for Sunday’s blast, which reverberated across the city, but the extremist group did not immediately claim responsibility.

Bodies and limbs lay among bloodied boots, clothes and mobile phones — some of them ringing — after the explosion, an AFP reporter said.

Provincial governor Assadullah Khalid told a press conference shortly afterwards that 60 bodies were taken to the city’s main hospital, Mirwais, and 20 to other hospitals.

“This suicide attack was the work of Taliban, the enemies of Afghanistan,” Khalid said.

“Lots of people have been wounded — since they have been taken to different hospitals, we don’t have a precise figure at this time,” he said.

More than 500 people had gathered for the dog-fighting competition, said Abdul Karim, who had been in the crowd to take part in the popular winter pastime, which was banned from 1996 to 2001 under the Taliban government.

“Fighting had just started between two dogs. Suddenly I heard a huge explosion next to a police vehicle. Then I saw lots of people dead and wounded. I counted over 40 people on the ground dead,” he told AFP.

Police reinforcements rushed to the scene as civilian and police cars and ambulances ferried the wounded to hospitals. A police officer who asked not to be identified said he had helped to evacuate more than 50 dead and wounded.

Witnesses said the attack bore the hallmarks of previous suicide bombings carried out by Taliban insurgents.

A spokesman for the group, Yousuf Ahmadi, said he could not yet comment on the blast.

Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai and head of the Kandahar provincial council, told AFP he had no doubt the attack had been carried out by the extremist movement.

“Who else would carry out suicide bombings? Obviously the Taliban are the ones carrying out suicide attacks,” he said.

The blast was the biggest ever in Kandahar city, he added.

The last significant attack in the city was in December when a suicide attacker blew up a bomb-filled car near an Afghan army convoy, killing a civilian.