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| An Afghan sits near his brother wounded by roadside bomb |
MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Nine Afghan herdsmen including five children have been killed by a roadside mine as they herded cattle in northwest Afghanistan, according to police.
The incident took place in Faryab province, which borders Turkmenistan, late Friday and again highlights the dangers civilians face in the ten-year war in Afghanistan.
Sayed Massoud Yaqoobi, Faryab police spokesman, confirmed details of the incident, adding: “Nine civilians were killed including five children and a man was wounded.”
There are about 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, mainly from the United States, combating a Taliban-led insurgency that started after the group was ousted from power by a US-led invasion.
The United Nations said in July that 1,462 civilians were killed by the Afghan conflict in the first half of this year, up 15 per cent on the same period last year, many of the deaths come as a result of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mines.
