Bomb kills 10 in Afghanistan

A Taliban-style roadside bomb tears through vehicle killing 10 people, mostly women and children, say police.

HERAT: A Taliban-style roadside bomb tore through a vehicle taking a family to a wedding party in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 10 people, mostly women and children, police said.

"The mine was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan to target military forces. It hit a civilian bus, 10 people most of them women and children were killed," said Abdul Jabar Purdili, police chief in western Herat province.

The bomb, similar to those used by Taliban and other insurgents in the long war in Afghanistan, was planted on a road between Herat and Nimroz provinces, both bordering Iran, he said.

Four other people were injured, he said.

Roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are the main weapon of Taliban-led insurgents who have been fighting the Western-backed government since being pushed from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The bombs are detonated by remote control or by pressure as vehicles pass over them. They are cheap and easy to make, but difficult to detect.

They exact a deadly toll on the 150,000 international troops under US and NATO command, accounting for many of the almost 600 killed so far this year, compared to 521 for all of 2009. They also cause life-changing injuries.

Many of their victims, however, are ordinary Afghans, with the majority of civilian deaths and injuries blamed on the Taliban.

According to a UN report, more than 1,200 civilians were killed in violence in the first six months of 2010, an increase of 25 percent on the same period in 2009.

Earlier this month, nine members of the same family were killed in a similar attack in eastern Paktya province.

In northwest Badghis province, a father and daughter were killed by a similar bomb, an official said.

"Their motorcycle struck a mine in Muqur district," said the provincial governor's spokesman, Sharafuddin Majidi.