Truck Bomb Kills 31 in Afghan City; Guerrillas Blamed

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A truck packed with explosives exploded Friday in a crowded business section of the Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing 31 people and damaging cars and buildings, state-run Kabul radio reported.

It was the third car bomb attack in an Afghan city in three days.

The radio report, monitored in Islamabad, did not mention injuries. The official Soviet news agency Tass reported 33 injured, most of them women, children and elderly people.

Kabul radio, quoting Afghanistan’s official Bakhtar news agency, said the blast also destroyed 25 vehicles parked in a nearby parking lot and damaged a local theater and 45 shops.

The radio blamed “criminal extremist opposition” for the explosion, apparently referring to Afghan guerrillas fighting the pro-Soviet government.

On Wednesday, six people died when a car bomb blew up in Kabul, the Afghan capital. A second car bomb exploded in the capital Thursday, killing one person, the radio said.

No group has claimed responsibility for any of the explosions.

Jalalabad, about 70 miles east of Kabul, has been the scene of heavy fighting during the Afghan war. When the Soviet Union began its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on May 15, Jalalabad was the first city to be emptied of Red Army soldiers.