KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near the gates of a university in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least seven people, officials said.

Ahmad Javed Faisal, the spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said the blast near the entrance to Kandahar University also wounded 23 people. He said all of the casualties were civilians.

Attacks in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, have been on the rise.

Earlier Monday, a spokesman for the eastern province of Logar said a NATO airstrike killed three civilians in the province. A spokesman for the coalition says initial reports do not suggest any civilian deaths.

Logar province spokesman Din Mohammad Darwesh said NATO forces were on a foot patrol in Charkh district Monday morning when they came under fire from insurgents. He added that they called in an airstrike and the bombardment killed three shopkeepers.

NATO spokesman Maj. Martyn Crighton said initial reports show only one airstrike in Charkh on Monday, with no civilian deaths. He said the strike was called on insurgents who were planting a bomb.

Crighton said a number were killed and the body of at least one tested positive for traces of homemade explosives.