Explosion destroys market in Mazar-e-Sharif

An explosion has ripped through a market in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, wounding 100 people, six of them seriously.

An explosion has ripped through a market in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, wounding 100 people, six of them seriously.

One of the wounded says he saw a fragmentation grenade roll into the moneychangers' section of the city's central market before the explosion.

The local health minister, Mirwais Rabde Sherzod, called the explosion a terrorist act.

"The people who did this meant to destroy the peace and tranquility of our city," he said.

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A security guard in Mazar-e-Sharif's central hospital says more than 100 wounded had been registered, according to an Iranian television crew. Hospital officials say six people are seriously wounded.

Television footage showed several people lying in hospital cots with bandages around their legs and faces. Some of them were attached to drips.

Northern Alliance fighters, with the help of a dozen US special forces troops and heavy US airstrikes, seized Mazar-e-Sharif last month. It was the first major Taliban-held city to fall in the Afghanistan fighting.

AP