Heart: A Taliban-style
roadside bomb tore through a vehicle, taking a family to a
wedding party in Afghanistan, killing 10 people, mostly women
and children, police said on Wednesday.
"The mine was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan to
target military forces. It hit a civilian bus, 10 people most
of them women and children were killed," said Abdul Jabar
Purdili, police chief in western Herat province.
The bomb, similar to those used by Taliban and other
insurgents in the long war in Afghanistan, was planted on a
road between Herat and Nimroz provinces, both bordering Iran,
he said.
Four other people were injured, he said.
Roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive
devices (IEDs), are the main weapon of Taliban-led insurgents
who have been fighting the Western-backed government since
being pushed from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
The bombs are detonated by remote control or by
pressure as vehicles pass over them. They are cheap and easy
to make, but difficult to detect.
They exact a deadly toll on the 150,000 international
troops under US and NATO command, accounting for many of the
almost 600 killed so far this year, compared to 521 for all of
2009. They also cause life-changing injuries.
Many of their victims, however, are ordinary Afghans,
with the majority of civilian deaths and injuries blamed on
the Taliban.
According to a UN report, more than 1,200 civilians
were killed in violence in the first six months of 2010, an
increase of 25 percent on the same period in 2009.
Earlier this month, nine members of the same family
were killed in a similar attack in eastern Paktya province.
In northwest Badghis province, a father and daughter
were killed by a similar bomb, an official said.
"Their motorcycle struck a mine in Muqur district,"
said the provincial governor`s spokesman, Sharafuddin Majidi.
PTI
