Roadside bomb kills 6 Afghan civilians

[November 12, 2011]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A roadside bomb killed six civilians on Saturday in Afghanistan's eastern Laghman province, a provincial official said.

Faizanullah Patan, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the explosion destroyed the car in which the six victims, five men and a woman, were traveling. He said it occurred just outside Mehterlam, the capital of Laghman.

In southern Afghanistan's Nimroz province, gunmen on Saturday shot and killed a village elder in the Khash Rod district, regional chief Hashim Norizia said.

Nimroz has been recommended for transition from NATO to Afghan security control later this year. The city of Mehterlam was transitioned in July.

A bicycle bomb in western Herat province's Injil district wounded two police officers and two civilians, the Interior Ministry said.

Many Afghan militants have traditionally had their strongholds in the south, but also carry out numerous attacks along the eastern border with Pakistan.

Meanwhile, 12 people were killed in a traffic accident in the Gereshk district of southwestern Helmand province when a car collided with a bus, provincial traffic director Abdul Rahman Azizi said. Another three people died in a second traffic accident in the same district, he said.

[Associated Press]

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