Nine children were killed and four others injured in an explosion in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, according to the Taliban-appointed governor’s office.
Nine children were killed and four others were injured in an explosion in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. (representative file image)
On Monday, nine children were killed and four injured in an explosion in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, according to the Taliban-appointed governor’s office.
A statement from the governor’s office said the blast occurred when a vehicle selling food items rammed an old, unexploded mortar shell in Lalopar district of eastern Nagarhar province.
No other details were immediately available.
The province is the headquarters of the Taliban’s rivals, the Islamic State group, which has carried out a series of attacks targeting Afghanistan’s new rulers since the Taliban took over the country in mid-August. However, IS has carried out dozens of horrific attacks in Afghanistan since 2014 and has often targeted the country’s minority Shia Muslims.
Afghanistan is one of the countries with the most non-exploded land mines and other armaments from the country’s decades of war and conflict. When ordnance explodes, the victims are often children.
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