MAIMANA, Afghanistan, Oct 28 (NNN-XINHUA) – Five Afghan children were dead, after a Taliban’s improvised explosive device (IED) detonated, in the country’s northern Faryab province on Sunday, a local source said.
“The blast occurred after one of the victims stepped on a pressure-plate IED, in a village of Pashtun Kot district,” Hanif Rezai, spokesman of army Corps 209, Shaheen, based in the region, told Xinhua.
The next of kin of the victims were notified and one child was also wounded in the incident, Rezai added. He blamed the Taliban militant group for the attack.
Taliban militants have been using home-made IED’s to make roadside bombs and landmines, targeting security forces, but the lethal home-made weapons also inflict casualties on civilians.
Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflicts, as more than 2,560 civilians were killed and over 5,670 others injured, in conflict-related incidents in the first nine months of this year, according to figures released by the UN mission in the country.– NNN-XINHUA