Bombs Kill 14 Civilians in Afghanistan

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Two bomb explosions in southern Afghanistan killed 14 people, including 3 children at play, Afghan officials said Thursday, as mounting violence before next week’s elections exacts an increasing toll on civilians caught up in the broadening war with the Taliban.

Dawoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial authorities, said a roadside bomb exploded next to a van carrying civilians, killing 11, including two women, in the province’s Gereshk district. “The Taliban have planted mines everywhere,” Mr. Ahmadi said. “That’s why most of the time, civilians are the targets.”

The Taliban offered no immediate comment on that explosion or another in Mirwais Mina, near Kandahar, that killed three children. Some reports said the children, aged between 8 and 12, were playing with a bomb they found at the side of a road. Abdul Ahmad, a police official, said it seemed the bomb had been recently planted “in an area where children and people are walking freely.”

An American serving with NATO forces in the south was also reported killed Thursday, The Associated Press reported, quoting a military press release that attributed the death to ”a direct fire attack.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/world/asia/14afghan.html?hpw