KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) Two separate roadside bombs killed nine children in Afghanistan on Monday, while six bodies found the day before in a restive southern province were identified as policemen and not contractors as was initially reported, officials said.
A roadside bomb killed seven children from the same family in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, said the governor's spokesman Mokhlis Afghan. Another three children in the family were wounded. The children were playing on a road near their home when the bomb exploded.
In a separate incident in southern Zabul province, two children were killed when their family's vehicle hit a roadside bomb, Zabul's deputy governor, Mohammed Jan Rasoolyar said. The family was travelling to the provincial capital of Qalat for shopping. The father was wounded along with a third child, Rasoolyar said.
Roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices are among the deadliest weapons in the insurgents' arsenal but they often kill civilians.
Rasoolyar also said that authorities identified the six bodies, all decapitated, as policemen. Confusion arose over the bodies found Sunday in neighboring Kandahar province because they were in civilian clothes.
