A spate of separate attacks has left at least five civilians and 16 Taliban insurgents dead in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, officials said Sunday. The militants died while fighting Afghan Special Forces and national police in Panjwai district, provincial spokesman Javed Faisal told dpa. He said a "high-ranking" commander was among the dead.
In the same Kandahar district, a father and his two sons were killed late Saturday when their motorbike hit a roadside bomb as they drove home from the market, Faisal said.
"They were returning home from the district bazaar after shopping for cookies, dried fruit and new clothes for the upcoming Eid (festival)," he said.
In the Kandahar district of Arghandab, a van struck a roadside bomb late Saturday, killing two civilians and injuring four, the governor's office said. It also said that a bomb "placed by the Taliban at a bus stop" in the district of Spin Boldak went off, wounding five civilians.