Nashanuddin Khan/Associated Press Men inspected the wreckage of a suicide car bomb on Sunday in Khost Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bomb, which was detonated next to a school.

Blast Kills 16 Afghans Near Pakistan Border

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a black sport utility vehicle outside a local government compound in Khost Province on Sunday, killing at least 16 people, including 13 schoolchildren, and wounding 53, local government officials and coalition forces said. The bombing, near the border with Pakistan, occurred next to a school, and many children were among the wounded.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Haji Dawlatkhan Quyomi, the chief of Ismail Khil, the district in which the bombing occurred, said the death toll could rise.

Coalition forces provided a video showing about 15 children walking on the street as they were engulfed by a ball of fire. Mark Larter, a spokesman for the coalition forces, said the death toll also was based on reports of troops at the scene. Two police officers were among the dead.

The number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan has fallen sharply since 2006, mainly because of better intelligence and a proliferation of security checkpoints. But in Khost Province, which borders the tribal area of Pakistan's North Waziristan, a wave of violence continues to overwhelm security officials.

Despite the drop in the number of bombings, suicide attacks around the country have become more technically sophisticated and grown in scale, including Sunday's attack, in which a huge fireball towered over the compound's security blockade.

In November 2007 in Baghlan Province, north of Kabul, a mammoth suicide bomb laced with ball bearings killed more than 70 people, including six members of Parliament, and wounded more than 100, mostly children.

Sunday's blast occurred west of the city of Khost as local leaders and tribal elders gathered inside the government building to discuss security and elections, said Tahir Kahn Sabari, the deputy governor of Khost Province. At the nearby school, the bomb rattled students, ages 6 to 12, who were receiving certificates on the last day of the school year.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying those responsible "are not aware of the Islamic teachings which outlaw the killing of innocent people."

A day earlier the police acted on intelligence to locate a suicide car bomber as he tried to enter the city of Kandahar, said Matiullah Qait, provincial chief of Kandahar. Police vehicles chased the driver, and when he reached a security checkpoint west of the city, he detonated his explosives, killing three policemen and one civilian.

Also on Saturday, a roadside bomb killed two Canadian soldiers and two Afghans working alongside them in a dangerous region of southern Afghanistan, Canada's military said on Sunday, The Associated Press reported. Four other Canadian soldiers and one Afghan interpreter were wounded in the blast.

On Saturday night, a rare missile attack fell on Kabul, killing three teenage sisters, their family and the police said. The rocket likely was fired from west of the capital, near Wardak Province, where militants have developed a stronghold since last year. No one claimed responsibly for the attack.

Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.