Kandahar - A roadside bomb believed to have been planted on a road by Taliban militants struck a bus in southern Afghanistan, killing 12 civilians and wounding 15 others, officials said Tuesday. The bus was traveling from the southern province of Kandahar to neighbouring Helmand when it was blown up in Maiwand district on Tuesday morning, the Kandahar governor's office said in a statement.
Police commander Bismullah Khan also confirmed the incident, saying women and children were among the victims.
Some 1,500 Afghan civilians were killed between January and August, up by 20 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to a United Nations report. Around two-thirds of those were killed by insurgents, while most of the other 30 per cent were killed by NATO airstrikes.
Roadside attacks have claimed the lives of more than three quarters of the 370 foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, according to NATO officials.
