KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) – Two coordinated bomb blasts killed seven people in southern Afghanistan today, including three police responding to the first explosion — an Iraq-style attack rarely seen here.

Hours later, a suicide car bomber rammed into a convoy that usually carries Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid. The governor was not in the convoy, but the apparent assassination attempt killed three civilians on the street and wounded four government employees, including the information and culture minister and one of Khalid’s body guards.

The blasts in Kandahar came less than a week after Taliban field commander Mullah Dadullah was killed during a U.S.-led operation in neighboring Helmand province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the first two attacks in their former stronghold, saying that the second blast was timed to hit as more police arrived on the scene.

The first blast — a remote-controlled bomb targeting a pickup truck — killed four private security guards, said Esmatullah Alizai, Kandahar province’s police chief.

About 15 minutes later, a second roadside remote control bomb exploded, killing three policemen and wounding four, Alizai said.

Several journalists covering the aftermath of the primary explosion were splattered with blood from the deafening blast. Two journalists working for Al-Jazeera television were slightly wounded, taking shrapnel to the back of their legs.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attackers as “enemies of Afghanistan,” saying the militants were harming police and civilians.

“Through these attacks they are trying to disrupt the process of development and reconstruction of Afghanistan, but the people of Afghanistan are confident that the enemy will fail in their mission,” he said in a statement.

The first bomb sent the pickup truck cascading off the road, and left it a charred, burning wreck. The second bomb ripped through the bystanders — mostly police and journalists, as civilians were barred from entering the area. The severed leg of one policeman landed near an Associated Press reporter. Another dead officer in bloodied, white clothes lay on the ground 10 yards away.

Officers shouted and cried as they carried bodies away in the chaos.