(Updates with police confirming death toll) Mirwais Afghan KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug 18 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb attack outside a base of a U.S. security firm on Saturday killed 15 people in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, witnesses and police said. Violence has surged in the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban's government in 2001. The blast happened close to a highway on the western outskirts of Kandahar city, they said. Police said it was a suicide car bomber. Witnesses said it was aimed at a U.S. security firm called USPI. A police vehicle and a passenger car were also hit by the explosion, witnesses said, adding three police were amongst the victims. "We saw 12 dead bodies being dragged away. They were civilians and also Afghan employees of the company," said one witness who refused to give his name. Kandahar's police chief, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 15 people had been killed in the attack. A Reuters reporter saw 15 bodies in the morgue of a hospital in Kandahar city. They included five police, three women and a child, he said, adding 18 more people were wounded in the blast. The attack came a day after a suicide bomber inside the city killed a district chief and three of his children at the gate of their home. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attack. The Taliban movement has claimed many previous suicide attacks. The group largely relies on suicide raids and roadside bombs as part of its campaign against the Afghan government and Western troops based in the country. Some 7,000 people have been killed in the past 19 months in Afghanistan by violence which is rising despite the presence of some 50,000 Western troops led by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition as well as more than 100,000 Afghan forces. The violence has hit hardest in southern and eastern areas, where the Taliban and their allies such as al Qaeda are most active. It has hampered reconstruction projects in the war-torn country and forced dozens of aid groups to halt their activities.
