Two roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday killed a total of 11 civilians, including seven women and three children, officials said.
The interior ministry and local officials said the attacks, both in Musa Qala district of Helmand province, wounded six others, also mostly women and children, and blamed the Taliban.
“Today at around 9:00 am (0430 GMT) a roadside bomb blew up a civilian truck in Musa Qala that killed 10, including seven young women and three children.” provincial spokesman Farid Ahmad Farhang told AFP. Hours later, a second device destroyed a civilian motorcycle, killing a man and wounding a woman and three children — all members of the same family — Farhang said.
A statement from the Helmand governor’s office confirmed the toll and blamed the “enemies of Afghanistan”, a term used by officials to refer to Taliban insurgents waging an 11-year war against the Kabul government and its NATO supporters.
Roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are the deadliest insurgent weapon in Afghanistan both for the military fighting the Taliban and civilians. The crude devices, often built on old ammunition, are planted by the side of roads to target NATO and Afghan troops but they also kill civilians travelling on the same roads.
The United Nations says 1,145 civilians were killed in the war in the first six months of this year, blaming 80 percent of the deaths on insurgents, with more than half caused by roadside bombs.
