Bomb blast kills 10 in NE Afghanistan

At least 10 people including eight policemen and two civilians have lost their lives in a roadside bomb attack targeting a vehicle packed with police officers in northeastern Afghanistan.

According to local authorities, the incident took place in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar on Thursday.

Following the incident, Provincial Governor Fazlullah Wahidi issued a statement saying that “Unfortunately eight of our policemen and two civilians have been martyred and one woman critically injured in the incident.”

Reports say that the injured woman was transferred to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Afghan officials put the blame on Taliban militants who had carried out similar assaults in the past.

Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are by far the most lethal weapon Taliban militants use against Afghan forces, foreign troops, and civilians.

On January 26, eleven people were killed in a roadside bomb attack targeting an Afghan police truck packed with officers and detainees in the southern province of Kandahar.

In December 2012, a roadside bomb explosion killed three Afghan civilians in the country’s western province of Farah.

In the first six months of 2012, over 1,140 Afghan civilians were killed and around 2,000 were wounded, mostly by roadside bombs, according to statistics released by the United Nations. Thirty percent of the casualties were women and children.