Two women killed in Afghanistan bomb explosion

Kabul, Mar 3: Two women were killed while two men were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan on Monday, authorities said.

"A vehicle set off an improvised explosive device (IED) in Shikin district (in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province) at around 9 a.m. As a result, two women were martyred and two men wounded," Xinhua quoted the provincial government as saying in a statement.

The victims were members of one family, the statement said, adding that those injured have been shifted to a hospital by police. Governor Muhibullah Samim condemned the attack in Paktika province, 155 km south of Afghan capital Kabul.

The Taliban insurgent group has largely been using home-made IEDs to launch suicide attacks and roadside bombings against security forces but these also cause casualties among civilians.

Some 2,900 civilians were killed and nearly 5,700 wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led attacks in the war-torn country last year, according to UN mission officials.

IANS