Two suicide attackers exploded bombs in the main southern Afghan city Monday, killing at least three people and wounding eight, officials said.

The assaults bring to five the number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan in the past two weeks -- four of them in southern Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold.

The first bombing was outside the home of a former militia commander who was allied to the US-backed Northern Alliance, which swept the Taliban from power in late 2001, Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid said. The blast killed the former commander, Agha Shah, a supporter of President Hamid Karzai, as well as two civilian passers-by, he said. Eight people were wounded.

Police had earlier said that four people were killed, but Khalid said this was not correct. He said the bomber's body was strewn in bits around the area, but that his head had been recovered and that he appeared to be Arab and was believed to be a member of the Taliban.

The second bombing was two hours later. Police received an intelligence report that an attacker was approaching a US military base in the city. Officers rushed to the area, prompting the assailant to run away before detonating explosives strapped to his body, Khalid said.

No one besides the bomber was hurt in the blast, which occurred about a kilometer from the base. The bomber's body was blown into several pieces and was unrecognizable, he said.

The bombings came a day after another suicide attack in Kandahar injured four British government officials. The deadliest suicide attack in the past two weeks was outside an army training center in the capital, Kabul, when nine people were killed.

Suicide assaults have been far less frequent in Afghanistan than by insurgents opposed to US-led forces in Iraq, although senior Afghan officials have spoken in recent months of al-Qaida operatives entering the country to stage attacks.

The spate of bombings come amid a reinvigorated insurgency by Taliban-led rebels that has killed more than 1,300 people in the past half year.

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