Kabul: At least five civilians including
children were killed and two dozen others injured in separate
attacks today, officials said, as non-combatants suffered a
bloody weekend in Afghanistan.
A rocket hit a house early in the morning in a district
of eastern Nangarhar province, killing two children, an
interior ministry statement said.
The ministry blamed the attack on "enemies of the people
of Afghanistan" -- a term often used to refer to Taliban
insurgents waging a bloody war against Afghan and US-led NATO
troops.
Separately, twin bomb blasts in Lashkar Gah, capital of
southern Helmand province, killed three civilians and wounded
more than a dozen, provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
"The bomb, which was remotely detonated next to a Kabul
Bank branch here, killed a 12-year-old girl and two adults,
while wounding 15 other civilians," he said.
Minutes later, a second bomb exploded close to a high
school and injured three more children, an adult and a
policeman, Ahmadi said.
Ahmadi blamed the Taliban for both attacks.
Civilian casualties are an incendiary issue in
Afghanistan and are often used by the Afghan government of
President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban alike for political
ends, even though most deaths are caused by the insurgents.
Civilians were also said to have been killed yesterday by
a NATO air strike on a Taliban target and a separate shootout
between Afghan forces and rebels.
PTI
First Published: Monday, June 21, 2010, 00:05