Officials say 10 Afghan civilians killed in separate attacks

Nov 24, 2009, 8:08 GMT

   Kabul - Six civilians including four children were killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, and unknown gunmen also killed four people including two women, officials said.

   The bomb struck a private vehicle in Shakarkali area of Khost city, the capital of Khost province, on Tuesday morning, killing six civilians and injuring another, acting provincial governor Tahir Khan Sabari said.

   'Two men and four children, including a 1-year-old boy, were killed in today's bomb explosion,' Sabari told the German Press Agency dpa via phone. He said he had seen the victims in the provincial hospital.

   Another child was injured when the bomb, which was hidden under a water tank, was detonated as the vehicle passed by, he said.

   Four other civilians were killed Monday evening by unknown gunmen who opened fire on their vehicle in Khost's Ismailkhel district, Sabari said.

   Mohammad Yaqoub Bremand, the provincial police chief, said two shopkeepers and their wives were en route home from the provincial capital when they were attacked in Haidarkhilo village of the district. A child riding the vehicle was injured, he said.

   No group immediately took responsibility for the latest attacks in Khost. Both the governor and the police chief blamed 'enemies of Afghanistan' for the recent killings, a term often used by Afghan officials to describe Taliban insurgents.

   Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of the Taliban-led insurgency that is now into its ninth year since the ouster of their radical Islamic regime by US-led forces in late 2001.

   Some 1,500 civilians were killed in attacks, including NATO airstrikes and Taliban bombings, in the first eight months of this year, according to a United Nations report.