Blasts claim 8 lives in Uruzgan

TIRINKOT (PAN): Eight people have been killed in separate incidents of violence in the central province of Uruzgan, officials said on Tuesday.

The provincial police chief, Col. Fazal Ahmad Shirzad, told Pajhwok Afghan News that seven civilians, including women and children, were killed and five others injured when a civilian vehicle struck a roadside bomb on Monday evening in the Shiwak area of Khas Uruzgan district.

The people were traveling from the Gandab area of the district to Ghazni province when the incident took place, said member of provincial council from the district, Mamor Abdul Ali.

According to him, two women, as many men and three children were among the victims.

The injured were taken to a hospital by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers, according to the ISAF media office in the province. Their condition was reported as stable.

Separately, a passer-by was killed on Tuesday morning in back-to-back explosions in Tirinkot city, the capital of the province.

One bomb was placed in a garbage bin and detonated as the deputy police chief of financial affairs, Maj. Noorul Haq, was en route to his office. Haq said the bomb did not inflict casualties on himself or his guards.

No one was injured in the first blast, but as people rushed to the scene, the second explosion took place about 20 metres from to first one. That explosion killed a shopkeeper, Haq said.

mm/myn/at