Roadside bombings kill 6 Afghan civilians

The ongoing militancy and violent incidents which happened in the shape of roadside bombings have claimed the lives of six non-combatants in Taliban former stronghold the southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces since Saturday, officials confirmed. In the latest violent incident, one civilian was killed and six others sustained injuries as a roadside bomb struck a civilian car in Taliban birthplace and former fiefdom, Kandahar province 450 km south of Kabul on Sunday, a local official confirmed Monday. "A mine planted by anti-government militants on a road in Khakriz district struck a civilian car Sunday afternoon killing the driver and injuring six others, all women," district governor Abdul Hamid told Xinhua. He said the gruesome incident took place when the women were going to attend a wedding party of their relative. No group or individual has claimed responsibility for organizing the deadly roadside bombing. However, Hamid put the attack on the enemies of peace, a term used against Taliban militants. A similar incident in Khanshin district of the neighboring Helmand province 555 km south of Afghan capital Kabul a day earlier on Saturday claimed the lives of five civilians, a local official asserted. "Anti-government rebels organized a roadside bomb on a road in Khanshin district of Helmand province on Saturday evening which hit a vehicle killing five civilians including a woman, her husband, two children and the driver," district governor Shah Mahmoud Mir told Xinhua. The official, however, blamed the enemies of peace, a reference to Taliban militants for organizing the attack. However, the outfit fighting the government largely relying on suicide and roadside bombings is yet to comment. In conflict-ridden Afghanistan, civilians have mostly borne the brunt of conflict over the past three decades of instability. More than 3,400 civilians lost their lives in conflicts in 2012 in Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials, while up to 3,021 civilians had been killed in 2011 in the militancy-plagued central Asian country, according to a report by United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).