Roadside bomb kills 15 civilians in Afghanistan

AP

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2010

A roadside bomb attack blamed on Taliban militants killed 15 civilians, including children, in southern Afghanistan and a car bomb wounded six people, officials said today.

The 15 died when the truck they were travelling in from Khair Abad village to Khansheen district in Helmand province was hit by a homemade device late yesterday, provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said. “The blast killed 15 civilians and wounded another four,” he said, adding that children were among the dead. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which are crude, cheaply made and difficult to detect, have become the weapon of choice for Taliban militants in their nine-year insurgency against Afghan and Nato forces.

The number of ordinary Afghans killed in the conflict rose by a third in the first six months of 2010 to 1,271, with most deaths caused by insurgent attacks, the UN said in August. Mr Ahmadi said the “barbaric attack” was the work of “enemies of Afghanistan”, a term often used to refer to Taliban insurgents.

Today, a car bomb went off close to police headquarters in Kandahar city, also in the south, wounding four policemen and two civilians. “There was a car bomb explosion at the car park of Kandahar city police headquarters. Four policemen and two civilians are wounded in the blast,” provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayobi said. The explosion shattered glass in buildings in the area, which has seen many explosions in recent years.

Separately, in the north of the country, a suicide attacker drove a stolen police pick-up truck packed with explosives into an army checkpost in Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province. “Four soldiers and four civilians were wounded in the suicide attack,” Abdul Rehmand Aqtash, deputy police chief, said.

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