Our bombs are warning to Nato says Taliban

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the bombings show the insurgents are still able to operate in spite of the buildup of Afghan and international troops in the south in preparation for a push into Kandahar province.

A separate, Taliban-linked website called the attacks a "warning" to General Stanley McChrystal.

The top Nato general has said Kandahar province is the next target for coalition forces who recently drove the insurgents from a key stronghold in neighbouring Helmand province.

"General McChrystal has said that soon they will start their operations, and now we have already started our operations," Ahmadi said by telephone.

"With all the preparations they have taken, still they are not able to stop us." The multiple explosions – there were at least five blasts, four of them suicide attacks – killed at least 35 people, according to the Ministry of Interior.

Kandahar provincial Governor Tooryalai Wesa told reporters that he had asked the central government in Kabul for more Afghan troops to protect the city in the run-up to the expected offensive in the province, which is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban. He also said he wants to co-ordinate with Nato forces to improve security.

Ministry of Interior spokesman Zemeri Bashary told reporters that the government was considering Mr Wesa's request.

Residents said Taliban militants can operate with little restraint in Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan and capital of the province that shares its name.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attacks, which hit the city's prison, police headquarters, a wedding hall next door and other areas on roads leading to the prison. The main target was the prison, where investigators have found eight suicide vests, three rockets and AK-47 ammunition, police said.

Mr Bashary told reporters the attackers were trying to free prisoners and block security forces from responding, "but they failed in their mission".

The assault mirrored a 2008 suicide bombing at the Kandahar prison gates that freed hundreds of prisoners, many of them suspected insurgents. No inmates escaped this time from the lockup, which Canadian troops reinforced with cement blocks after the 2008 attack.

Among the dead were 13 policemen and 22 civilians, including six women and three children, the interior ministry said.

Most of the casualties occurred at the police HQ and at a wedding celebration next door.

Another 57 people were wounded, including 17 policemen, and 42 homes were damaged, the ministry said.

Kandahar city, population 800,000, was the seat of government for the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan, imposing its vision of Islamic theocracy for five years before being toppled by US-backed forces in 2001.

The offensive that US, Nato and Afghan forces are planning in Kandahar later this year is a follow-up to the ongoing military operation in Helmand province's Marjah district.

The operation is the first test of Gen McChrystal's strategy to rout insurgents from areas, set up new governance and rush in development aid in hopes of winning the loyalty of the residents.

Afghan National Police forces were the first to respond to Saturday's explosions and some Canadian troops later deployed to support them, Canadian military spokeswoman Captain Cynthia LaRue said.

"The most important part here is to remember that ANP did a very good job and responded quickly," Ms LaRue said of the police, which are traditionally one of Afghanistan's least-trusted institutions.

US and Canadian troops have been working in Kandahar to build up a 2,000-strong local police force.

Another roadside bomb yesterday targeted a car carrying Pakistani construction workers south of Kandahar in the district of Dand, according to the governor. Four of the Pakistani workers and their Afghan driver were wounded.