Kabul, September 27: At least 16 Afghan civilians, including 11 children, have been killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the western part of Afghanistan, a local official says.
Herat provincial government spokesman Mohayedin Noori said the blast took place at 1:00 p.m. (0830 GMT) on Tuesday when a passenger bus returning from a wedding party hit a roadside bomb in Shindand district.
Eleven children, four women and one man were among the dead, he added.
Herat police spokesman Noor Khan Neikzad also said Taliban militants are behind the attack.
“The area in which the incident has happened is restive, the Taliban are active there,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.
“We believe they are responsible for killing the civilians,” Neikzad added.
Roadside blasts are one of the most common forms of attack used by Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
Hundreds of Afghan civilians have been killed either in US-led airstrikes or Taliban attacks over the past few months.
The security situation has been deteriorating across Afghanistan over the past few years.
Violence has also spread from Afghanistan’s volatile south to relatively peaceful areas over the course of the past year despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign troops.
—–Agencies