A suicide bomber killed 16 people in a crowded market in southern Afghanistan Thursday while another attack in the same region left a police officer dead, officials said, DPA reported.
The bomber struck the marketplace in Deh Rawood, a district in southern province of Uruzgan, on its busiest day of the week, Juma Gul Hemat, the provincial police chief said.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, calling it an un-Islamic act for targeting "defenseless civilians," the presidential palace said in a statement. Thirteen civilians were also wounded in the attack, according to the statement.
Another suicide bomber killed one police officer and wounded four other police personnel and one civilian in the Musa Qala district of the neighbouring province of Helmand, a NATO statement said.
More than 2,400 civilians were killed in attacks by insurgents or NATO troops in 2009, according to a recent UN report. Nearly 70 per cent of the casualties were inflicted by Taliban insurgents, including more than 1,000 deaths as a result of suicide and roadside bombings.