Separate roadside bombs kill nine children in Afghanistan

Two separate roadside bomb explosions have claimed the lives of at least nine children across war-ravaged Afghanistan, security sources say.

In the first incident on Monday, a roadside bomb killed seven children from the same family in eastern Paktika Province.

Local Afghan security officials say the children were playing on a road near their home when the bomb exploded.

Another three children were also wounded in the deadly explosion. The sources added that those injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

Separately, two children were killed when their family’s vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Zabul Province.

No group has yet claimed responsibility, but Taliban militants usually take the blame for similar attacks in the war-torn country.

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

The United Nation has expressed grave concern over the “unacceptable” and “very worrying” rise in child casualties across Afghanistan.

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a statement in June saying that at least 414 Afghan children were killed or wounded in the first four months of 2013.

Moreover, US-led foreign forces have killed thousands of people, including many civilians, in airstrikes and night-time raids since they invaded the country in 2001.

Violence continues to plague Afghanistan despite the presence of thousands of foreign forces, more than a decade after the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.