Afghanistan: Roadside bomb claims 10 civilians

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA)- At least 10 people died and six were wounded following a roadside bomb blast in Heart, western Afghanistan on Friday.

According to Lal Mohammad Omarzoy, the governor of Herat’s Adraksan district, all the victims of the bomb were civilians.

"A passenger car hit a roadside bomb in the Sherzad area today,” he said.

This comes exactly a week after a landmine blast claimed 11 family members in the southeastern Logar province last Friday.

Neither deadly incident has been claimed by any group, but such attacks are usually attributed to Taliban insurgents.

This February, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in its annual report that civilians again bore the brunt of violence in Afghanistan in 2016.

The report documented 11,418 conflict-related civilian casualties, including 3,498 people killed and 7,920 injured in 2016. Of these, 3,512 were children -- 923 dead and 2,589 injured, up 24 percent from the previous highest-ever recorded figure.

The conflict-related violence exacted a heavy toll on in the country, with an overall deterioration in civilian protection and the highest-total civilian casualties recorded since 2009, when the UN mission began systematic documentation of casualties, it said.