An Afghan mother weeps for her son who was killed in a series of explosions at a gas storage facility on the edge of the western city of Herat on Tuesday.
AFP/Herat
At least 11 people including several children were killed in a series of explosions at an Afghan gas storage facility, which triggered a massive inferno in a nearby camp for displaced people, officials said on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear whether the blasts late on Monday on the edge of the relatively peaceful western city of Herat were the result of an accident or caused by a militant attack.
"Around midnight (Monday) a gas tanker exploded which triggered blasts in a gas storage plant, killing 11 people and injuring 10 others," Herat police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP.
The explosions triggered a plume of flames into the night sky, which rapidly spread to a nearby camp for internally displaced people where most of the deaths occurred.
Ihasanullah Hayat, spokesman for the governor of Herat, confirmed the toll and said several children were among those dead.
Domestic gas cylinder explosions are an almost daily occurrence around the country, where safety standards are poor and fatal accidents not uncommon.
Herat province, a key business hub located in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran, is a relatively peaceful province in a country convulsed by an ascendant 14-year Taliban insurgency.
But in May last year four insurgent gunmen launched a pre-dawn attack on India's consulate in Herat before being repelled by security forces, in an assault highlighting the precarious security situation in the country.
And at least four Afghans were killed in September 2013 in a Taliban suicide attack on the US consulate in the city.
The Taliban are stepping up their summer offensive, launched in late April, amid a bitter leadership dispute following the announcement of the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.
At least 12 people including three US civilian contractors were killed Saturday when a suicide car bomber struck a Nato convoy in Kabul, following a wave of fatal bombings earlier this month that rattled the city.
Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Omar's longtime trusted deputy, was named as the new Taliban chief in late July in an acrimonious power transition.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri recently pledged his group's allegiance to Mansour, in a move which could bolster his accession amid the growing infighting within the Afghan militant movement.
The latest wave of deadly violence underscores Afghanistan's volatile security situation as peace talks appear to have stalled.
Afghan forces, stretched on multiple fronts as the insurgency expands, are facing their first fighting season without the full support of US-led Nato forces.
