At least eight Afghan civilians, including four children, were killed in a blast as they tried to escape fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban, officials said yesterday.
Some 22 others were injured in the explosion in the Bala Buluk district of Farah province on Friday, the latest carnage as the resurgence of the Taliban brings rising insecurity.
“Their vehicle hit a roadside bomb as they were fleeing the scene of fighting,” provincial spokesman Nasir Mehri said.
But Wakil Ahmad, a resident of the district, said the deaths were caused by an Afghan army air strike, during bombing of Taliban positions.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said they were “investigating the allegations”.
Dr Abdul Hakim Rasouli, director of Farah Hospital, said that 22 others are wounded in the attack. Three of the wounded are in critical condition and will be transferred to another hospital in neighbouring Herat province for their further treatment, he said.
Farah’s Bala Buluk district has been the site of several recent clashes between Afghan security forces and armed insurgents. One resident, a 30-year-old mother of four named Salima, said two of her children were killed and a third wounded. Salima, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, said her family
was attacked by a helicopter.
“I don’t want to be alive anymore while I don’t have my children
with me,” she said, crying.
The Afghan security forces operate helicopter gunships, as does the US-led military
coalition in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile a parliamentarian from Helmand province was wounded after he was attacked by gunmen in neighbouring Kandahar province, said Samim Khpolwak, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Khpolwak said that the lawmaker, Mir Wali, was shot by two attackers on a motorcycle who escaped afterward.
Afghan civilians are paying a high price for the escalating conflict. Civilian casualties in 2016 were the highest recorded by the UN since 2009, with nearly 11,500 non-combatants killed or wounded.
Nineteen civilian were killed and more than two dozen were wounded in a series of US air strikes in Sangin district of embattled southern Helmand
province in January.
Smoke rises as Afghan security force members stand guard near the site of an attack in Kabul last Wednesday. A suicide bombing rocked western part of the Afghan capital Kabul, followed by a gun battle.
