KABUL, Afghanistan -- Bodies lay amid pools of blood and twisted wreckage after a powerful car bomb ripped through Kabul's busy downtown market Thursday in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban regime.

Shoppers, some in bloodied and torn clothes, fled across streets littered with shattered glass as Afghan security forces toting rocket launchers and automatic weapons rushed to the scene. International peacekeepers screeched in, riding armored vehicles with soldiers manning machine guns on top. At least 10 people were killed in the blast and dozens wounded.

The market near the Information Ministry had been crowded with Kabul residents shopping before Friday's Muslim day of prayer. Even more people were lured in by a smaller blast that went off just before the vehicle -- said by witnesses to be a taxi -- exploded.

"We came to see what was happening, when the second bomb went off," said one shopper, Haji Abdul Aroof. "There was a powerful explosion and we all ran." He said he saw four bodies lying in the street.

It was the worst violence the capital has seen since the Taliban were driven out in November. Residents were already spooked by a mysterious string of bombings in recent weeks; the small explosions had caused few casualties but raised rumors they were they work of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network or the Taliban were trying to destabilize the fragile Afghan government.

Thursday's blast was a dramatic escalation.

"This is the work of al-Qaida," said Kabul's police chief, Basir Salangi.