Taliban bomb kills five civilians in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A Taliban roadside bomb killed five Afghan civilians and wounded two others in the south of Afghanistan, a provincial official said on Sunday.

Taliban insurgents killed more than 950 civilians last year in suicide attacks, roadside bombs and ground assaults, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office said in a report.

The bomb hit a van in the Panjwai district, west of the main southern city of Kandahar, on Saturday.

“The bomb was planted by the Taliban to attack foreign or Afghan forces’ convoys in the Panjwai district but it killed poor civilians,” said a district police official, Ghulam Mohammad.

Afghanistan last year witnessed its worst year of violence since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001. In the last two years, the Taliban have regrouped and relaunched their insurgency aimed at ousting the pro-Western government and foreign troops.