Gunfire rang out through the main city in Afghanistan's south after Afghan troops fought battles with Taliban fighters today for a second day running.
Scores of insurgents launched waves of attacks on key government and police targets in Kandahar yesterday.
Heavy machine-gun fire and explosions echoed across the city through this morning as Afghan forces, aided by Nato-led coalition troops, tried to mop up pockets of insurgent fighters, including some who had holed up in a shopping mall.
Kandahar provincial governor Tooryalai Wesa later declared that the attacks had been put down but, soon after he spoke, bursts of gunfire were heard from the shopping mall from which insurgents had been directing fire on his compound.
At least 18 fighters, many of them suicide bombers, were killed, he said. Three members of the Afghan security forces and one civilian were also killed, he said. He promised the insurgents would be shot dead "one by one".
Another 40 people were wounded, including 14 policemen, said the governor, whose compound in the heart of the city was the first to come under attack yesterday as heavily armed insurgents launched rocket-propelled grenades.
Four insurgents were also captured, all of whom had been part of a mass jailbreak from the city's main prison about two weeks ago.
Interior ministry spokesman Zemari Bashary said eight suicide bombers had blown themselves up during the simultaneous attacks on the governor’s office, an office of Afghanistan's intelligence agency and police outposts yesterday. The attacks shut down much of the city.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bold attacks on the most heavily fortified areas of Kandahar, once a stronghold for the Taliban and the seat of its government, saying they were part of a week-old spring offensive.
Tens of thousands of US, Nato and Afghan troops have concentrated their fight to turn the tide against a growing Taliban-led insurgency in and around Kandahar and in neighbouring Helmand province over the past 18 months.
US commanders have claimed success in clearing out insurgent strongholds in those areas but acknowledge that gains made so far are not yet entrenched.
The attacks, which used explosives-packed vehicles as well as fighters on foot, were not in revenge for the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a Taliban spokesman said, despite claims to the contrary by Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
Other attacks occurred in the neighbouring Arghandab river valley west of the city, an important insurgent route for moving men and weapons into Kandahar city.
Violence across Afghanistan last year reached its worst levels since the Taliban were overthrown in late 2001, with record casualties on all sides of the conflict.
Reuters