KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, January 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 15 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 11 others injured after a large bomb ripped through the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Ahmad Shah, a military commander, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) nine people had died at the U.S. military hospital at Kandahar airport, another three at a different hospital and three others at the scene of the explosion in the southern Manzalbath area.

Around 20 minutes before the deadly blast, a smaller device detonated in the same area, without causing casualties. The blasts occurred minutes before provincial governor Yusuf Pashtun was due to pass through the area.

A police officer who identified himself as Khalil said most of the dead and injured were women and children.

He said one suspect had been arrested over the first bomb blast and that he told police more bombs were planted in the city.

Kandahar is the former stronghold of Afghanistan's Taliban regime which governed Afghanistan until a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, BBC reported.

The first device went off at about 12:45 pm (0815 GMT), just minutes after police had sealed off the area following a tip-off. Police said residents became suspicious when two men moved a cart into the area and then departed.

"First there was an explosion in a cart and soon after this explosion the cart-pusher was arrested," said Kandahar's military commander Khan Mohammad.

Violence has been on the rise in southern Afghanistan - much of it blamed on supporters of the Taliban.

On Monday, January 5, unidentified gunmen opened fire and hurled a grenade at a United Nations office in Kandahar, without causing casualties, Khan Mohammad told AFP.

The attackers also fired shots with Kalashnikov rifles before the guards returned fire and the gunmen fled.

More than 400 people, many suspected militants, have been killed in the past five months in violence blamed on remnants of the ousted Taliban.

The 12,500-strong U.S.-led coalition is hunting down Taliban and al-Qaeda militants mainly in the southern and southeastern provinces bordering Pakistan.