World / Afghanistan Bomb Blast in Western Afghanistan Kills 10 Targeted police chief critically injured; Taliban claims responsibility By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted Aug 3, 2009 10:23 AM CDT Copied An Afghan police officer is seen near the site of an explosion in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa) 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. (More Afghanistan stories.) Report an error