KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): At least 15 civilians were killed and four others, including a woman, injured on Monday when a roadside bomb ripped through two pick-up vehicles in the Maiwand district of southern Kandahar province, an official said.
The explosion that took place on the Kandahar-Herat Highway in the afternoon in Gilan Kachi area followed a car suicide blast targeting a convoy of ISAF personnel in nearby Tormanda area, the governor’s spokesman, Dawa Khan Minapal, told Pajhwok Afghan News.
The foreign troops cordoned off the area after the suicide attack and had not been allowing vehicles to proceed on the highway, prompting some drivers to divert to a side road, he said.
Two vehicles which used the sideroad hit a landmine, killing 15 people and injuring four others, he said, adding the victims were heading to central Uruzgan province.
Minapal said the injured had been rushed to the Maiwand Civil Hospital, but he had no information about the extent of their injuries.
Earlier, the Ministry of Interior said 13 people were killed and five others, including a woman and a child, wounded in the incident that drew strong condemnation from President Hamid Karzai.
In a statement from the President Palace, Karzai said targeting civilian vehicles was the handiwork of the enemies of Afghanistan and the only motive behind such attacks was to inflict suffering on the Afghans.
Karzai said such cowardly acts by the enemies were being carried out at the behest of their foreign masters.
A taxi driver in Maiwand, Abdul Samad, said the blast was so powerful that it comprehensively damaged the two pick-up vehicles. He said the vehicles opted to use the minor road after waiting for several hours.
ma/mud
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