Another black day in Afghanistan as women, kids die in bombing

Nine civilians, including women and children, have been killed in a roadside bomb explosion targeting a small bus in southern Afghanistan.

Jamal Nasir Barekzai, the spokesman for the Kandahar Police, said five others were also wounded when the bomb tore through the vehicle in Afghanistan district of the province on Wednesday.

Baheer Ahmad Ahmadi, the provincial governor spokesman, said several victims were women and children.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Barekzai blamed the Taliban militant group.

On Tuesday, a blast in a mosque in Kabul’s fortified diplomatic district killed two people including a well-known prayer leader.

The UN mission in Afghanistan says homemade bombs used by the Taliban to target Afghan security forces have killed at least 10 civilians in the past two days. It has urged the militants to ‘stop using these illegal improvised mines.’

On Monday, seven civilians in the northern province of Kunduz were killed by a roadside bomb blast that authorities blamed on the Taliban. A bombing by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group also killed a journalist and a technician of a local TV station in the Afghan capital on Saturday.

The attacks come in the wake of a three-day ceasefire offered by the Taliban to the Afghan government that ended last Tuesday.

Violence has surged despite a deal between the Taliban and the United States in February that paves the way for the withdrawal of all foreign forces by May next year.