Afghan civilians bear war brunt as 8 killed in bomb blasts in 2 days

Civilians in Afghanistan often bear the brunt of war and civil strife in the war-torn country country as at least eight people including women and children have been killed since Tuesday, officials said Wednesday.

In the latest violent incident, a roadside bomb struck a military vehicle in the northern Pul-e-Khumri city on Wednesday, killing two persons and wounding 11 others with majority of them civilians, head of provincial health department Mohibullah Habib confirmed.

Without identifying the number of civilians, the official said, "majority of the victims are civilians."

Similarly, two blasts targeted two vehicles in the capital city Kabul in a span of less than two hours on Wednesday, killing one police and one civilian, besides injuring two others including a civilian, spokesman for Kabul police Ferdaus Faramarz said.

An identical blast in Qala-e-Zal district of the northern Kunduz province on Tuesday evening claimed the lives of four civilians and wounding six others, spokesman for provincial government Esmatullah Muradi said.

Women and children are among the victims, the official added.

At least 14 rockets fired by insurgents hit parts of Kabul city on Tuesday while the government was celebrating the 101st anniversary of the country's Independence Day amid tight security, killing at least three persons and wounding 16 others, all the victims are civilians, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian who said that two persons had been arrested.

Arian also said last week that the Taliban-led insurgency had claimed the lives of 121 civilians and injured 336 others elsewhere in the country over the past weeks.

A report from the the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), released late in April, besides calling on the warring sides to protect the civilians, documented 533 civilians killed in conflicts including more than 150 children and 760 others injured in the first quarter of the current year.