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At least 26 people were killed in a series of violent attacks yesterday in eastern and western Afghanistan, officials said.
Two roadside bombs within the same hour struck vehicles carrying civilians in western Afghanistan, killing at least 24 and injuring 11.
Meanwhile in eastern Afghanistan, two Afghan security guards were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a US Army base.
All 22 people travelling in a minivan in the Obay district of western Herat province were killed in one explosion, provincial governor’s spokesman Mohiuddin Nori said.
Another bomb struck a truck about the same time in the Kotal Turkistan area of the same district, injuring 13 people.
Two of the injured died later in the hospital from wounds sustained during the explosion.
Afghan interior ministry in a statement said five women were killed and seven children under the age of five were among the injured in the two bombings.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attacks, calling the incidents “unforgivable crimes committed in the holy month of Ramadan.”
“Once again, it indicates heinous and evil nature of the enemy,” Karzai said in a statement.
In the incident targeting US Army base in eastern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber in a car tried to enter the base in Gardez, capital of Paktiya province, but failed, an official with Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
He blew himself up in front of the base, said Rohullah Samoon, spokesman for the governor of Paktiya, a province that borders the volatile tribal regions of Pakistan.