Preliminary reports say 40 killed in Kandahar blast

At least 40 people died in a multiple car bombing and four US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb today in a day of violence in southern Afghanistan that overshadowed the release of the first partial results of a presidential election.

The five simultaneous car bombs in the southern city of Kandahar destroyed the offices of a Japanese construction company, killing women and children and wounding at least 64 people in the bloodiest such attack since July last year. Four US soldiers’ deaths that occurred earlier today raise the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this month to 63 and this year, to 295. Days after the election in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai is running neck and neck with his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, both with 40 percent of the contested vote, according to early partial results. Today marked a tragic milestone for Americans who bare the largest burden of war. The 4 troops killed surpassed the annual rate of Americans killed in the war since its beginning in 2001. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato Secretary General, urged all sides to treat the election in a “proper manner." Rasmussen is concerned that the election will not be considered legitimate, thereby increasing violence between warring factions.