(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-11 11:04

The attack appeared to be the second-deadliest bombing in Afghanistan this year and the third-deadliest since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. In June, 35 people were killed in a bomb attack on a police bus in Kabul, while in September 2002, 30 people were killed and 167 wounded in a Kabul car bombing.

Afghanistan has seen a spike in violence this year, especially in the south. More than 4,200 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence in 2007, according to an AP count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Earlier in the day, a spokesman for the militant group said the Taliban would consider negotiating with the Afghan government, but said no direct offer has been made by President Hamid Karzai's administration.

"If Karzai and his government ask directly for negotiations, the Taliban would consider that offer," Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by phone from an unknown location.

Ahmadi's comments come a day after Karzai reiterated an offer to negotiate with the hard-line Islamic fundamentalists, but added, the fighters "don't have an address" or a telephone number. "Who do we talk to?" Karzai asked.

Ahmadi, however, said the militants were easy to contact if government officials wanted to talk. He noted that South Korean officials flew into the country and quickly contacted the Taliban for negotiations over the fate of South Korean hostages last month.

"Whenever the Afghan government wants to hold negotiations, the Taliban is in Afghanistan," he said.

Meanwhile, 10 of 13 employees for a UN-funded land mine-clearing agency who were kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan last week were released Monday, said Paktia provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai. The three remaining captives were expected to be released soon, Alizai said.

Kefayatullah Eblagh, the head of Afghan Technical Consultants, the mine-clearing agency, said he didn't think Taliban militants were behind the abductions, suggesting a criminal group seeking ransom money carried out the kidnappings.

Elsewhere, militants ambushed and killed four police officers from the northwest province of Faryab who were traveling to neighboring Badghis Province to help repel an attack on a government center, said Faryab provincial police chief Gen. Khalil Zayia.

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