Bomb attacks kill Afghan family, police officers in Helmand

Six people including four family members have been killed in bomb attacks carried out in southern Afghanistan.

An improvised bomb explosion killed a family of four, including two daughters aged eight and nine, in Khan-shin district of Helmand Province late Saturday.

District governor Shah Mahmoud said the blast was so powerful that “nothing was left of the bodies.” “They are shattered in small pieces.”

The Afghan district governor blamed the Taliban militants for the bombing.

Meanwhile, a similar bomb attack in Musa Qala district, another restive part of Helmand, killed two Afghan police officers. The bombing was carried out while officers were on a routine patrol in their pick-up truck.

Militants use improvised explosive devices, including roadside bombs, against Afghan forces, foreign troops and civilians.

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.