A bomb attack killed 11 women and children from two families, destroying their vehicle in southern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. The device planted on the side of the road struck their minivan on Friday afternoon in Gereshk district of Helmand province, one of the toughest battlegrounds in a 10-year Taliban insurgency.
"Five women and a child from one family, and four women and two children from another family were killed in the blast," the Helmand governor's spokesman, Daud Ahmadi, told AFP. Ahmadi later clarified that eight women, not nine, were killed, along with two children aged seven to 12, and a third child under seven.
He identified a 12th victim as a young man in his 20s who was driving the minibus. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Ahmadi blamed enemies of Afghanistan for the blast, a term used by Afghan officials to refer to Taliban insurgents. Farid Ahmad Farhang, Helmand police spokesman, confirmed the death toll.