The series of bombings that demolished buildings and killed dozens - including 10 people at a wedding - prompted the provincial governor to plead for more security in the area. Fearful residents said they had no confidence that either government or foreign troops could protect them.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the attacks Saturday night proved the insurgents were still able to operate despite the buildup of Afghan and international troops in preparation for a push into Kandahar province.

A Taliban-linked Web site called the attacks in the south's largest city a "warning" to NATO's Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has said coalition forces will target Kandahar later this year after driving insurgents from a key stronghold in neighboring Helmand province.

"Gen. McChrystal has said that soon they will start their operations, and now we have already started our operations," Ahmadi said in an interview. "With all the preparations they have taken, still they are not able to stop us."

However, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the attacks had failed to achieve their main objective, which apparently was to repeat the success of a 2008 suicide bombing at the gates of a prison that freed hundreds of criminals and suspected insurgents. Canadian troops had recently reinforced the lockup with cement block, so Saturday's blast did not break through and no inmates escaped this time.

"They wanted to free the prisoners . . . but they failed in their mission," Bashary said.

The multiple explosions - there were at least five blasts, four of them suicide attacks - killed at least 35 people, according to the Interior Ministry. Fifty-seven people were wounded in the attacks, which hit the city's prison, police headquarters, a wedding hall next door, and other areas on roads leading to the prison.

Kandahar provincial Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said he had asked the central government in Kabul for more Afghan troops to protect the city before the expected offensive in the province, which is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban. He also said he wanted to coordinate with NATO forces to improve security.

Bashary said the government was considering Wesa's request.

Kandahar city, population 800,000, was the seat of government for the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan, imposing its vision of Islamic theocracy for five years before being toppled by U.S.-backed forces in 2001. The province of the same name is the insurgents' base, and militants control most villages surrounding the city. Residents said yesterday that the Taliban also could operate freely in Kandahar city.

"They can do what they intend and want, and the government can't control the situation," said Javed Ahmad, 40, of Kandahar. "We don't feel secure in the presence of all the forces in Afghanistan, and it's terrible for us to live in this kind of situation."

Another roadside bomb yesterday morning targeted a car carrying Pakistani construction workers south of Kandahar in the district of Dand. Four of the Pakistani workers and their Afghan driver were wounded.