Attacks, bombing leave nine Afghan civilians, 14 insurgents dead
Kabul - US-led coalition forces killed one civilian and 14 insurgents in southern and western Afghanistan while two children were killed by a roadside bomb and six civilians died in an attack on a wedding party, officials said Saturday.
The children died Saturday in Khost, the capital of the south-eastern province of the same name, when a roadside bomb targeting two Afghan security vehicles detonated, provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqoub said.
Fifteen civilians were also wounded, Yaqoub said.
The Afghan civilian killed by US-led troops died Friday when the vehicle he was travelling in failed to stop at a checkpoint in Khost province, the US military said in a statement.
"We regret this tragic loss of life and express our condolences to the individual's family," the statement said.
Another six civilians were killed and more than 50 were wounded in the Totem Dara area of the northern province of Parwan Friday night when unknown attackers threw hand grenades on a wedding party, said Khalilullah Zeyaee, provincial police chief.
Zeyaee said that no one was arrested in connection with the attack, adding, "We think personal enmity could have been the cause of the attack."
Taliban militants are not active in the province.
In a separate incident, Afghan commandos backed by coalition forces killed four insurgents Friday in Dowlatabad village in the western province of Farah, the US military said.
The joint forces came under fire by militants barricaded inside a compound as they approached the area, the statement said, adding the soldiers returned fire and killed four militants.
Separately, 10 other militants were killed in a fight with Afghan and coalition forces Thursday in the Naher-e-Surkh district of southern Helmand province, the US military said.
The combined forces were conducting a security patrol when they were attacked by militants, it said. The troops returned fire, killing 10 militants, it added.
The Taliban, who lost control of Afghanistan in 2001 in a US-led military invasion, has intensified its attacks on Afghan and international forces recently.
The violence so far this year has left more than 4,000 people - mostly insurgents - dead. (dpa)