A roadside bomb planted by Taliban insurgents killed 17 civilians - mostly women and children - on their way to a wedding party in western Afghanistan on Friday, officials said. Afghan weddings are often lavish affairs, drawing hundreds of relatives and guests from far afield in the war-torn land, and the blast took the total toll among wedding guests on the roads to 46 in less than a month.
Roadside bombs are the weapon of choice of the hard-line Islamists fighting Afghan forces and some 100,000 Nato troops, in an effort to topple the government of President Hamid Karzai. Two Nato troops were also killed by one of the bombs in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, the International Security Assistance Force said, without giving further details.
While the Taliban say their targets are military, civilians using the same roads are frequently the victims. Those killed in the latest blast were travelling in a minibus from one village to another for the celebrations when the explosion ripped through their vehicle in Farah province.